What Might Have Happened, The Chronicles
by Midnight Marauder
Summary: Duelist Kingdom and Battle City - Complete. The Trio has now entered their senior year of high school and thought that everything was going to go smoothly, unfortunately for them things got worse when the problems of the Senshi spilled over into Domino.
1. GHOST STORY

**DISCLAIMER:**I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, if I did I would have talent as an artist. Sadly, my only talent lays in thread and translating the crochet language. Also, if anything is referenced or recognizable I do not own it either. That should cover all the bases.

* * *

**NOW PRESENTING…**

**WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED**

The gender-bending story of Motou Yugi and her quest to figure out just what is going on with the golden puzzle her Grandfather gave her for her birthday. Follow the zany antics of Yugi as she shuffles and draws the cards that will either help or hinder her in her unknown destiny.

* * *

**A. GHOST STORY**

_What is the force that binds the stars?  
__I wore this mask to hide my scars  
__What is the power that pulls the tide?  
__Never could find a place to hide_

_What moves the earth around the sun?  
__What could I do but run and run and run?  
__Afraid to love, afraid to fail  
__A mast without a sail..._

_That this indifference  
__Was my invention  
__When everything I did  
__Sought your attention..._

Sting, _Ghost Story_ from "Brand New Day"

* * *

It was a foolish to say that "high school was the best days of your life" because, in reality, high school was really the first introduction to the world. People were cruel, yet there was those few that were nice and gave some hope for the world, and the homework was backbreaking and heavy. Also, school was always boring and monotonous with the same people and the same routine that rarely got changed. This particular high school story begins with an average height sixteen-year-old girl named Motou Yugi, but she was anything but your typical girl. While many girls in her age group flirted, brought themselves to the brink of physical danger to join the cheerleading squad, gossiped and twittered about like birds with their friends, and squealed over the latest cute guy or celebrity she was definitely different.

The friends she had could be easily counted on one hand, she was rather oblivious to flirting in any form and had no interest in dating, was not active enough to warrant her interest in the cheerleading group or their politics, and avoided speaking with **_anyone_** in less she absolutely had to. To the squealing she only did that in private and over her obsession with sweets, but that is rarely witnessed or even admitted. With that brought out into the open, the most interesting thing for the Domino High School student was in the school newspaper, which she rarely put any stock into since it was worse than some of the local newspapers.

Many were watching her like hawks, waiting to see her reaction to what had been posted in the paper. A brave sophomore boy had shyly approached her with the paper in hand, greeting her and making she to shove the paper in her hands before rushing off to his friends blushing. She looked bewildered for a moment and looked over the paper. She stood out among her peers with her naturally dark red hair pulled back in a bun with two shoulder length bangs framing her oval face, or falling into her slightly tilted purple eyes. Her attire was the typical girls uniform— consisting of the traditional pleated blue skirt, a dark blue blouse with a white sailor collar, and a white tie around the collar— only with black dance tights beneath the skirt and a fpair of knee high socks that were horizontally stripped with alternating dark blue and white with the traditional black buckle shoes, showing that the school was a little bit progressive. She started to walk again, adjusting the strap of her messenger bag as she continued towards the school, only to freeze as she realized why the paper had been handed to her.

Yugi blinked a few times and stared blankly at the section of the paper that the nearing-or-already-fifteen-year-old boy had handed her. While her brain had to restart and recognize the words, she was wondering whom she would have to maim to get this to end.

_Junior Class Poll: Couples To Keep or Not To Keep?_

_Among the classes, many groups were asked who should be together and who should not be. The results were rather surprising, as noted below. Wonder what is going through the minds of everyone when it comes to these six, even if we could not ask the last two mentioned._

_Mazaki Anzu and Honda Hiroto – 48 YES, 50 NO, 2 UNDECIDED_

_Jonouchi Katsuya and Anei Rei – 30 YES, 30 NO, 40 UNDECIDED_

_Kaiba Seto and Motou Yugi – 95 YES, 4 NO, 1 UNDECIDED_

"Okay." She muttered to her self and carefully folded the paper up and continued towards class, confusing a good many that had been watching her. They were sure she would have snapped and done something totally unexpected and worthy of asking her about later. It was early in the day, all they had to do was be patient and something may happen soon.

Yugi had to grit her teeth and force a smile every time someone would stop her and gush about how much of a cute couple her and Kaiba would make if they would just stop denying their feelings for one another. Once they passed by to talk to someone else, she would sigh and try to steel her nerves a bit more against the fact that the day would only get worse instead of better. This meant she would have to not only dodge Kaiba's masochist fan girls, but Mazaki's little clique, all the while avoiding those that would be fawning over them. "Why would I want to go out with my best-friend?" she muttered to herself, making her way down the crowded hallway. "I know that the drama series allow that to happen, but still… this isn't television!"

"Muttering to yourself again, Motou?" a rather grating voice drawled from behind her, Yugi paused for a moment and turned to face the person that had just interrupted the conversation she was having with herself. The red haired teen mentally groaned, but outwardly she crossed her arms and looked bored when she faced Mazaki Anzu, the self-proclaimed 'Belle of Domino.' She had shoulder length brown hair that framed a heart shaped face with dark blue eyes, yet the most grating voice in the world. To the displeasure of most with sensitive ears, Anzu just loved to hear herself talk at length about anything and everything. Most around them paused to stare at Anzu's obscenely short skirt and bare legs, making Yugi shiver in disgust.

"Obviously, do mind? You were interrupting a rather good rant." She deadpanned as Anzu put her hands on her hips and glared at her, cheeks slightly puffed out.

"You're a freak, Motou." The brunette stated bluntly as Yugi rolled her eyes and started back towards class, waving her left hand in dismissal.

"I'm just interesting and crazy with a brand of humor that is rarely appreciated, Mazaki, and I only reserve the word 'freak' for events and accidents where it can be appropriately used." She retorted as many ignored them, figuring it was another spat between the most popular girl in the school and the odd-ball that always kept them guessing. "Like when describing you and your voice, which is freakishly high. Are you sure you are not a boy in drag?" With that parting statement Yugi left Anzu to stew in the hallway, figuring that it was not worth the trouble to stick around to hear her screech like a barn owl with issues.

Yugi made it to class before the bell and when only four people were in the room, which was good since she did not need detention for being late due to carelessness. She had enough troubles with the few chess tournaments they always entered her in and helping her Grandfather with the shop he ran, all the while completing homework and eating. A detention would worry Grandpa, and in turn, would cause some troubles in their small family and than things would get worse… She slapped her left hand to her forehead, physically halting her mental train of thought while the others in the room looked at her oddly. "Read the paper, eh?" Another girl stated in amusement as Yugi pulled her hand away from her forehead and brought her right up, showing that she still held the school newspaper.

"Yes, but I don't see why I am being studied like a lab experiment." Yugi replied with a pout as she plopped down in her seat and pulled out a black binder, which was littered with drawings of vines and ongoing figures that formed seven varying objects in a odd arrangement, and tucked the newspaper into the mess of papers at the back. Hopefully the phrase 'out of sight, out of mind' would help her out today. Kaiba's reaction should be relatively interesting, if anything, so the day was slowly looking up.

Pulling a pen from her bag she sat back and opened her binder to a page that was half full of text and started to write. The only thing she missed was the entrance of the entire classroom and a white haired British teenage boy, who seemed to be staring right at her.

Sixteen-year-old Ryou Bakura stood out among his peers with his spiky, mid-back length spiky white hair and innocent, and some-what feminine looks. At the moment the boys in the class were wondering why a girl was dressed in a boys uniform and the girls were curious, if not a bit envious, of the looks of the new kid. He stood with the teacher of the class, who was reading something and waiting for the bell to ring, and looked over the class. Most were typical with dark hair and eyes, but he froze when he seen the two that were lurking in the back of the room away from the commotion and conversations in the front. He recognized Kaiba Seto, who's brown hair fell into his sapphire blue eyes, but also by the blue trench coat he wore in place of the blue overcoat but he was talking with a girl with dark red hair. Both seemed rather familiar, definitely interesting and even the darkness in him knew that.

The cackling gave it away, making him close his eyes and will that little voice to be silent for once as he stood before the classroom. Opening his eyes, he stared at the red haired teenage girl that was sitting three seats in front of where he was standing. "You are absolutely no help!" he heard her whine, whapping the teenage billionaire on the top of his head with her pen, an annoyed look marring her face while said billionaire smirked. No one around them seemed to be paying attention, so Ryou assumed that this was a common occurrence. They almost seemed to fight like brother and sister, and that made him bite the inside of his cheek to hold back a laugh.

"It would be an interesting prank to play..." he trailed off with a fond look as she tried to glare at him, despite the fact her nose twitched and the corners of her lips were almost turning into a devious grin. The voice in his head was cooing something about new entertainment without having to pay anything, but Ryou shoved a particularly nasty mental image in his direction and relaxed a bit when he felt the other whimper in pain.

"Well, revenge is a dish best served cold and why would I want to give in to what they put down?" she pointed out, starting to tap the eraser end of her pencil against her desk with a lazy half-lidded gaze pinning a now nervous Kaiba to the spot, in return all he did was roll his eyes and hope the feeling would pass.

"Any other delightful phrases you wish to share with me?" he drawled out in a bored tone, cocking his head to the side, arms crossed over his chest while sitting back with a challenging look. This just caused Yugi to bare her teeth in a menacing grin, causing Ryou to shiver because he had seen that look before and it usually was seen before something distinctly illegal was committed.

"How about 'payback is a bitch'?" she asked in a rather sugary-sweet tone, only it had a sharp edge to it, and turned back around to scribble something down in her notebook while Kaiba set-up his laptop to take notes when the lesson began.

_Those two are rather close. _Ryou mused to himself as a small voice snickered at his understatement. Suddenly the chatter ended and he came back to reality from his musing, and plots to try and get the voice in his head to stop giving him bad ideas.

"Class, we have a new student today." The teacher announced as the class fell silent. The man than motioned to him and he stood straight and bowed to the class like he was expected to do. It was at this point that the white haired teen decided that he did not like being the center of attention, especially considering they all looked confused to his gender. That was something he hated when it came to school, even when he attended primary school in England… the jokes about his effeminate looks. It was hard to go against genetics, but that is digressing too much. "This is Bakura Ryou from England."

"England?" one girl echoed with starry eyes while others were whispering to one another.

"Why is she wearing a boy's uniform?" a boy asked as the chatter began again, all the gossip and sudden questions blurring together and giving him a headache. Shaking his head he looked over everyone, while the teacher tried to regain order, and noted that Yugi looked bored and was staring at a spot over his shoulder and tapping the top of her pen against the notebook in front of her and Kaiba shut the top of his laptop and glared at him like he had done some heinous crime.

_Not yet, I haven't, but that is one damn good glare. I wonder if he can give you some lessons… _the voice asked excitedly as Ryou restrained the urge to twitch at that statement. Of course he would want lessons on glaring, never mind the present situation was more important. How frustrating!

He blinked twice as the room was now silent and the teacher was glaring daggers at his students, daring someone to speak at this point. "Now Bakura-san, would you like to tell the class a bit about yourself." He stated through his teeth, continuing his glare as his pen was poised over his grade book threateningly. One of the few joys of being a teacher, besides filling the minds of impressionable youth with knowledge, was holding their grades in the palm of their hands. This teacher would not mark down a grade because the class was rowdy, but the class did not have to know that or else he would have to find a new threat and that would take ages.

"I just moved here from England and my father is an archaeologist, he is presently in Egypt trying to discover some obscure tomb that no one believes is real. We believe he has finally flipped his lid, its been four years in the making." he stated cheerfully as the class was dead silent and staring blankly at him, some jaws dropped at his carefree tone, but he noted that Kaiba looked bored and Yugi had stopped writing and glanced up at him with one eyebrow arched in question.

"That's interesting." The teacher stated slowly and with a frown, than shook his head. "Bakura-san, there is an open seat in front of Motou-san. Motou-san, raise your hand please." He stated as she did so, pencil lazily held between her fingers. The white haired teen quickly made his way to the desk as she lowered her hand and tapped the eraser against her notebook a few times as the class started to chatter again while the teacher sighed and set about writing the first set of notes on the board before he began his lecture.

"Don't forget, Yugi, you owe me a rematch." Ryou heard Kaiba tell Yugi, but he did not have the courage to turn around and face the two of them. Right now he would just casually listen to the conversations going on around him, not eavesdropping in hopes of finding out something interesting or hints to what the voice in his head wanted to find and deface. No evil intentions here, only good…

"I always owe you a rematch, if I had not known you for as long as I have I would have accused you of being a sore loser." She returned, sounding as if she was pouting. "Are you just that bored or have you forgotten that there are other people out there to challenge?"

"I will defeat you." He stated in a determined tone as a click meant he had opened his laptop again.

"Of course, of course. This is the place where barely anything truly interesting happens; apart from the random acts of boredom, in other words the beginning of the marathon long duels. Is that right, Daddy Warbucks?" she cooed and Ryou swore he could here the young CEOs teeth grit together in frustration, or annoyance at the nickname.

"Of course, how else is your brain supposed to slowly melt away at room temperature?" (A/N: I know this disrupts the flow, but footnotes are evil. This line was shamelessly stolen from Saiyuki Gaiden.) Kaiba stated as the teacher called for silence again and began his lecture. Ryou was thankful for this because it was getting a bit frustrating to resist the urge to turn around and watch the conversation for himself, the facial expressions had to be hilarious!

_I like them, approach and befriend them. They will be worth the trouble that may be in the future, hell it sounds like they'll be better than those pathetic shows you got stuck watching when you were in the hospital for the broken leg! _the voice cackled again, exuding a feeling that he was rubbing his invisible hands together and had the horns and a wagging pitchfork tail. Just great, now the voice in his head was acting up and that meant trouble! At the moment Ryou really wanted to curl up in the fetal position and cry about the unfairness of the world or plead to whatever deity was listening for normalcy.

_Are you absolutely sure about the decision to get involved with those two? They seem to be in a relationship that has not blossomed or is only half accepted. _Ryou whined, sounding as if he wanted to stomp his foot like a five year old in the middle of a tantrum while keeping his calm outer look.

_Suck it up, ya' wuss. At least they won't mistake you for a girl and try to molest you like the last bunch._the voice returned with a snicker as Ryou's left eye twitched. He came back to reality when he heard Kaiba and Yugi whispering, much like the rest of the class since five students were at the board writing their answers up on it and the teacher was tapping his pen against the book and impatiently waiting for them to finish.

"What if I am, Mr. Kaiba? What would you do about it?" he heard Yugi whisper in challenge to something Kaiba had said, but he did not know what the conversation was about since he started to stare off into space.

"What happened to the shy, innocent, sweet kid you used to be?" he asked, sounding not a bit sad or mocking like it should have been.

"She left her answering machine in complete control." she sarcastically replied as Kaiba gave a low chuckle, probably sitting back in his chair and looking smug about something. Why did he have to sit in front of her?

_Curse you fate! _he mentally shouted as the voice snickered at his annoyance. So far the move was actually a good thing, his host would have to come to terms with some of his issues and he even got a free floorshow to boot! It was his lucky day. Now what trouble could he stir up without being caught?

* * *

Author's Note: Actually, this is a bit of a test. I have said I would be rewriting this series and now I am on a bit of a kick. Leave a comment if I should keep it or not, but things might not pick up till the third chapter or so. Also, the entire series will be rewritten and posted all under this title. Sorry for the troubles!

07 April: Yugi's hair color was fixed in the two instances I forgot to change and the mental conversation between Ryou and Yami Bakura has been put in italics due to a disagreement between me and the document program on FanFiction. My bad.

10 Aug: Fixed a few minor errors, one being italics and the other a minor word mix-up, since I was re-reading this in my boredom (and debates about laundry and lunch).


	2. A THOUSAND YEARS multiplied by Five

**B. A THOUSAND YEARS (multiplied by Five)**

_An endless turning stairway climbs  
To a tower of souls  
If it takes another thousand years, a thousand wars,  
The towers rise to numberless floors in space _

_Or I could ride with kings and conquer many lands  
Or win this world at cards and let it slip my hands  
I could be cannon food, destroyed a thousand times  
Reborn as fortune's child to judge another's crime_

_A thousand times the mysteries unfold themselves  
Like galaxies in my head  
On and on the mysteries unwind themselves  
Eternities still unsaid 'til you love me_

Sting, _A Thousand Years_ from "Brand New Day"

* * *

Classes had drug on at a snail's pace, even lunch, to Yugi's annoyance. The usual Gin Rummy game had lasted ten hands before the period ended and her new shadow, Bakura Ryou, was starting to get on her nerves as well. It was bad enough that the school paper had started a movement to push her and Kaiba together, but the fact that he seemed to always be hanging around in the background was worse. At the moment she was heading towards her grandfather's shop, the Kame Game Shop, intent on settling down with a nice dinner of chicken stir-fry and some tea before curling up in bed like a cat in the sun.

That hope was utterly ruined when she heard someone shout her name.

She repressed a whimper, but physically winced. Of course the voice had to belong to the soft-spoken Ryou, who had obviously decided that he would finally say something to her instead of just being the silent stalker. But, why did he have to chose now of all times? Some days she cursed the fact that she did not like to keep the volume on her MP3 player up really loud, seeing she valued her ear drums and they were a long term investment, not to mention it was dangerous crossing street intersections with them on high. Adjusting her black messenger bag, another words her left hand was gripping the strap just above her heart instead of lashing out against the new student, while her right hand loosely held her MP3 player with her thumb over the volume control. Was there any way to convey to this boy that she was in no mood to be very friendly, polite, and courteous?

Turning around she noted that he looked determined, so the answer was no. She pinned him with a bored stare and waited, but he just stared at her blankly for a moment. It was a creepy thing to observe, considering he looked like one of Kaiba's fan girls when he actually had to acknowledge their existence.

Meanwhile, Ryou's mind had gone blank as he finally caught up with the red haired girl. _What the hell are you waiting for? I would **love** to get out of this damned ring in the next damn week. She won't bite your head off, maybe give you a black eye for being a stalker… _that same voice snapped as Ryou rolled his eyes. She looked a bit annoyed and Ryou was inclined to agree with the voice in his head, she was going to try and deck him if he was not quick.

"Sorry for acting like a stalker today, Motou-san!" he apologized, stopping a few feet from her and bowed. From the corner of his eye he could see her left hand tighten around the strap of her messenger bag while the other held an MP3 player. With a sigh she slipped the small music player into the right side pocket and than reached up to remove her right headphone, indicating that he had part of her attention.

"What can I do for you, Bakura-san?" she asked in a bored tone, her shoulders slumping a bit while she shifted her weight to her left leg. He blushed a bit at her tone and tried to ignore the music that he heard and the nervousness that suddenly came over him.

_Why did I call out to her again? _he asked himself as the voice growled in annoyance and snatched control from his host, mentally growling out a few curses for him being shy and stupid on some, if not most, occasions.

"Yamanaka-sensei suggested that I should borrow your history notes, seeing you have the best attendance in the class and your scores are very good, not to forget the fact that no one else was willing to give up their notebook." The in-control voice stated out loud with a pleasant smile, wondering if his face would become stuck like this and if he would be allowed to indulge himself in some alcohol for being this damned polite in public, he was a thief for the sake of Ra and they were not this polite!

"I suppose, I can ask Kaiba to send me a copy of his if needed." She told him with a thoughtful look before looking down and using her left hand to pull the flap of her messenger bag up and her other hand to dig out a plain notebook that had 'History' handwritten on the binding. Yugi offered it to him, he accepted with another smile as she let the flap drop back into place. "All of the notes are between the covers, take what you need and try not to destroy that notebook… the poor thing tends to spit out pages at random."

"Of course." Ryou replied, smile faltering a bit as he shoved the voice back again, cursing its impatience.

"Just staple them back in or shove them in place, but keep them in chronological order." she added with a shrug and picked up her headphone, from where it was hanging by her waist, and slipped it on again. "Finally, I would like it back by first bell so I can finish the drawing on the last pages. The battle scene was just getting interesting." With that she turned and started to walk away as he stared down at the black-and-white diamond design, cardboard cover that had 'Motou Yugi' on the front in black pen and orderly kanji.

"Thanks." he muttered to her back as she waved a hand in good-bye, or dismissal, before disappearing into the crowds.

_Battle scene? _the voice asked in curiosity as Ryou tried to squash him down; they could poke around the notebook in the comfort of their own apartment. People were looking at them oddly enough as it was. With a growl of annoyance, he shoved the notebook into his bag and missed the fact that Yugi was standing on the street corner opposite of him and was watching him stalk off in the opposite direction she had been heading.

Yugi frowned as she tried to figure out what was going through the transfer student's head; he was really an odd character among the usual ones that already walked the halls of Domino High School. He just went from polite and shy to growling and stalking away as if someone kicked his puppy. Shrugging this off as something that usually happens, since it did, she started her trek through the streets of the city, which was just a mere stretch of the legs and only a fifteen-minute walk when the weather was decent. After that meeting, and letting her mind go on autopilot, she had managed to cut down her usual time to ten minutes. When she was finally pulled from her internal debate about the characters around her by the fact that she stood before her grandfather's shop slash where they lived, the Kame Game Shop. The building was a typical shop, only a little smaller with a green and yellow turtle on the front sign and the kanji for 'Kame Game Shop' written in black across its back. She reached out and turned the golden knob on the wooden door with a glass panel that had a sign that proudly proclaimed 'Yes, We Are Open' on the front and opened the door, wincing when the little bell attached to the metal ring above the door was rung. So much for the stealthy entrance, thank heavens she was not a ninja.

In light of her failure to sneak in, she decided to hide the failure and turn it into something intentional. "Grandpa! I'm back!" Yugi announced cordially, pulling her MP3 player out by the headphone cords and shutting it off just as an old man with a wild hairstyle popped up from behind the counter along the back wall.

Sixty-eight-year-old Motou Sugoroku was at least a half-foot shorter than his five foot six granddaughter, a bit stockier than her, with gray hair that was spiked up in the back with his bangs creased and flying away from his face. His face had a few laugh lines, a testament to the fact he was once a parent and was now a grandparent, but the feature on this man that drew people in was his large purple eyes and a calm, understanding air that hug around him and compelled people to trust him. How he kept that air about him while being an archaeologist and former professor, she would never know. It was one of the many mysteries that haunted his old friends, colleagues, as well as her friend's daily lives.

"How was school, Yugi?" he asked with a smile, dusting his hands off on the blue jean overalls he wore before straightening his dark blue shirt. He fixed his granddaughter with a stare that was neither demanding or innocent, but a medium that made her shift a bit and debate on how to answer this question without being interrogated too much over dinner. There was a puzzle calling her name in her room, after all, and she had no homework on this dull late, Monday afternoon.

"Mind numbingly boring, with the occasional interesting point. Managed to play three too many hands of Gin Rummy during lunch and gained a stalker for most of the day, but nothing different there" she stated with a shrug, walking past the counter and started up the stairs that was off to the left of the counter, the ones that led to the living area on the second floor of the building.

"Stalker?" he echoed with a frown as she paused after five steps, turning a bit and shrugged.

"New student decided that I was interesting, I guess, or he was just hellishly bored and Seto and I were the victims." Yugi dryly replied as Sugoroku's eyebrows rose by the fact she called Kaiba by his first name instead of 'Kaiba' like she usually did. "Grandpa?"

"When did he become Seto, Yugi-chin?" he asked with a wide smile and a devious look in his eyes, making her shiver at the can of worms that had just been opened by that little slip up.

"Slip of the tongue, honestly, it has been one of those days." she answered and quickly retreated up the rest of the stairs as he rolled his eyes at her stubborn nature, which had been inherited from his side of the family, and than shook his head. Those two would never admit anything, that he knew, but it would be an interesting day when they did so. All that tension may melt away when they were around one another. "I put some new card packets on the coffee table in the living room so please thumb through them tonight or tomorrow morning before school"

"Thank you, Grandpa!" Yugi called down as he heard her open the door at the top of the stairs and, moments later, shut again.

Yugi groaned and slapped a hand to her forehead, what a slip up! She entered the living room where a small entertainment center was set in a corner, just before the entrance to the small kitchen, with a sofa against the far wall with the small hallway to the bathroom and three rooms. She picked up the two foil card packets and made a beeline for the hallway, shoulders slumping forward a bit as she paused in front of the first door and turned the gold knob and pushed in. People same that the eyes were the windows to a person's soul, but it can also be argued that how someone decorates their place of residence reflected just the same and Yugi's room was no different.

The walls had been painted a lavender color with Egyptian hieroglyphs painted in gold four feet from the floor, done by her grandfather as a gift. Over the years many things had been added to the room, seeing she rarely threw things out, and the most prominent addition was a four-shelf black book case that was at the foot of her western style bed, which sat low to the ground. The bed was beneath the only window in the room, and covered in dark red sheets with black pillow cases and several blankets of varying clothes and ages strewn all over it. The window had heavy purple curtains tied to the sides by golden rope and the sheer white curtains obscuring all view of her, as did the black macabre plant holder with a long vine being held. A taller shelf was placed against the wall opposite of her bed and far enough away that it was not going to fall on her in the fight, and just to the right of the door with the shelves facing the bed. These shelves were packed with books on ancient cultures, mythology, on Egypt, and ancient history with a few modern history books with trinkets that were important to her. A five drawer dresser made of dark wood was placed in the center of the wall that her headboard resided against and had a black spider-web lace on the top and several trinkets spread over it, her dueling deck sitting in the middle of all it in its plastic case. Across from the dresser was a matching desk that had a green lamp to the left side, two drawers on either side, and had many papers haphazardly left on its surface with at least two books and many pens, pencils, and highlighters weighting them down. The walls either had several black plastic frames, one was a movie poster for _The Nightmare Before Christmas_ and the rest were dragon puzzles, and had been hung randomly on all walls with tapped up pictures from animes or just random things she found on-line.

Home sweet home.

After taking a few calming breaths and crossing the threshold into her sanctuary, enjoying the faint scent of chocolate and flowers, Yugi dropped her school bag by the door to her room as she closed it. Closing her eyes and crossed the room in three steps and flopped down on her mattress and blankets, arms spread to either side with her legs hanging off of the bed. With a sigh of utter relaxation she slowly opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling and attempted to will herself into action… to find the puzzle that had been determine not to be solved since her grandfather gave it to her four years before. Sometimes she wondered how well he could hide his sadistic streak, giving a five millennia old, pure gold, cursed puzzle to his twelve-year-old daughter as a coming of age gift.

Speaking of the nearly impossible to solve gold puzzle…

Yugi finally sat up, brushing a hand through her hair, and sat on the edge of her bed surveying her room. The ornate, dark mahogany and gold inlayed box that held the gold pieces sat on the top of the four shelf bookcase at the foot of her bed on a white doily of pineapples with only a stack of six paperback puzzle books, three frog decorated pencils that ranged from two inches to five inches on top of the stack with a well used rounded pink eraser, to its left side and a digital clock to the right that showed that the time was 4:13 pm. Pulling her feet up on to the bed and sprawling out on her stomach this time, she reached out and tapped the lid of the box. "Looks like it is just you and me tonight, eh?" she muttered tracing the gold designs with a small smile before reaching out with her other and carefully picking it up by the sides and sitting it on the bed in front of her. "The cards!" she exclaimed getting to her knees and casting a look at her bag, which was across the room and by the door. "Nah, they are too far away and I don't feel like getting up for them till dinner… yes, I'll look at them when we sit down for dinner." She told herself and stared down at the box, fingers itching.

Sitting back on her butt she reached out and pulled the box closer to her and turned it around to the front where the eye of Horus stood out on the side of the box with the simple clasp. Carefully opening the box, she started to pull out the remaining pieces and spread them around her. There were at least four clusters of pieces that had merged together and at least ten floating pieces that she sat before the box before picking the box up yet again and turning to sit it on the pillow at the head of her bed. Picking up an oddly shaped piece and inspecting it in the sunlight, she had a sudden reminder about something. "Damn it, dinner with Seto tomorrow night around six." she muttered to herself while reaching out to pick up the one cluster of pieces to her left and managed to fit the piece to the one side.

She did not know how much time passed, but she had four more pieces in place and had connected two of the clustered pieces together. The muttered curses and musings had started in her frustration, she missed the door opening and her grandfather peeking in. "You do know that when you start to talk to yourself, you are heading for the homestretch in the insanity race and the next one is hearing voices." Sugoroku told his granddaughter with an amused look, which widened a bit more when she jumped a foot in the air and the piece she was holding, which had the eye of Horus on it, tumbled into her lap. Yugi glared at him for his sneakiness, but he snickered in response and flipped the light switch that turned on the light that was in the center of the ceiling and covered by a frosted glass covering.

"I just lost two years of my life!" she whined with a pout as he laughed out loud, shaking his head at the fact his serious granddaughter sounded like a five-year-old that was just denied a sweet. "Evil, evil Grandpa." With that she turned back to the puzzle and fished the puzzle piece that she had been holding from her lap.

"Than you should be more aware of your surroundings." He shot back and crossed his arms. "Dinner will be in two hours, I've decided to make soup tonight and dug out that old recipe I had from Egypt and it turns out we have everything for it." He told her as she cooed, a starry look appearing in her eyes.

"Yatta!" she happily declared with a true smile and bobbed her head about to music that he could not hear at the prospect of one of his infamous stews. He may not be able to cook any other type of meal but soups, but those soups were worth cooking the rest of the time.

"I'll call out when I need you to start the rolls." He added as he stepped from the doorway, shutting the door as he went.

"Soou-ou-ou-oup." She drawled out like the B-rate science fiction movie zombies drooling over brains. So the day was actually looking up, Yugi figured as she stared at the shut door before turning to look at the puzzle sprawled out before her. With renewed determination, she decided that she would assemble the remaining pieces in an hour and than go hover in the kitchen for dinner of stew. "Fresh biscuits, since rolls require sitting for an hour or so… well I could do rolls if I finish this early." She muttered to herself, now excitedly waiting for dinner to be done.

As she continued to work on the puzzle, the pieces started to feel a bit colder and she swore that the shadows in the room were a bit darker and seemed to have a personality. Sure the fluorescent lights had chased away the shadows that had lengthened with the sun setting, but that did not explain why the hair on the back of her neck were raised and she had the sudden urge to get a flashlight from under her bed and sit in the corner and glare at the shadows till morning. More pieces clicked into place and she combined the two clusters, leaving only four pieces before her and an upside-down pyramid that was missing two corners and a line down the middle. She groaned and tilted her head back, rubbing her neck and right shoulder as the strain of leaning over the puzzle started to take its toll. This was not good for her back, but there was always the age-old adage 'no pain, no gain' to remember.

Only a half hour had passed, she noted after glancing at her digital clock and the fact that its red numbers declared it to be 5:30 pm. Well, at least the only plus was that she was now down to only four pieces instead of the original ten floating ones and the four clusters. She may actually make it! Yugi took a moment to turn and stretch her legs out over the side of the bed, wincing as her calf muscles and knees protested the stretching while her right foot had the pins-and-needles feeling of the circulation speeding up a bit. "Never sit like that for a long period of time ever again." She grumbled, knowing that it was useless to say such a thing when she would do it again. Swinging her legs a bit she braced her hands against the edge of the bed and leaned her head forward, letting her hair fall forward and cover her face. "How about a nice, hot shower and then finishing this frustrating puzzle." With that she slowly got up and muttered about her room, pulling out a fresh set of pajamas and undergarments and left her room with the prospects of being clean.

Sugoroku heard the shower start and left the kitchen, a towel over his shoulder and the stew was on the stove boiling for the next hour or so, and made his way to Yugi's room. The shower curtain's rings clinked as it was pulled close, he suspected, so he could step into her room and take a look at her progress on the puzzle without having to worry about the questions she would ask. Hell, he would ask the questions if he caught someone checking on his progress without his permission! Mentally he damned himself for accepting that damned offer from the twenty-year-old woman in Egypt who had seen a picture of his granddaughter when she was ten or eleven. This puzzle had been given to him by here, the woman's agenda still unknown but he would kill her if it hurt his darling granddaughter in any way.

He stood by the bed where the gold pieces were, noting the black lines that made up the designs at the corners he could see and the outer lines of the eye of Horus that would be in the center of the side that was laying face up, the front. He touched the main piece, only to retract his hand as if he was burned. The gold was cold as ice to the touch, but he felt like he was stung by the black lines he had touched. He glanced to the side as the shadows seemed to shift, growl in annoyance at the fact he dared to touch something that was obviously not meant for him. He backed away from the bed, keeping his purple eyes on the golden pieces that were sparkling innocently in the light and did not look away until he was in the hallway. It was than he turned and retreated to the kitchen, to where the phone was, and to where he knew the pieces of that artifact could not make him feel threatened.

Taking a few deep, calming breaths and pressing a hand over his heart, he finally steeled his nerves enough to make that phone call. To make the only phone call to that damnable woman. With a defeated sigh, and many colorful mental curses towards the woman, he picked up the phone and dialed the number that had been forced into his head, and dailed it. After a few rings, and maybe a minute that seemed like an eternity, someone picked up the phone. "Miss Ishtar?" he asked politely after a soft, female voice greeted him with a standard greeting and he suddenly felt a bit sick to his stomach. The ramifications of what he had agreed to those five, nearly six, years ago were finally making a return. "This is Motou Sugoroku, you told me to call today. Yugi is close to completing the puzzleyou told me to give her." He grit his teeth as his free hand curled into a fist, the biting of his nails into his palm the only thing that kept him from 'accidently' breaking a plate in his frustration and what the young woman was telling him. "Of course, Miss Ishtar." He coldly bit out and hung the phone up. Oh she would rue the day she started this little plot.

"Grandpa?" he heard Yugi ask, which caused him to jump this time and the towel that was drapped over his shoulder to slip off to the floor. He forgot that she took rather short showers and had not practiced what he had told her earlier about paying attention to her surroundings. "Who was on the phone?" she asked adjusting the bundle of dirty clothes in her arms with a frown.

"No one of importance, Yugi, just someone that I wish I had never met." He honestly told her as she nodded, but he could tell by the look on her face that she was unsettled. It was best that she was unsettled because something would happen soon and she may be in the center of the ordeal, to his annoyance. Yugi shrugged, obviously not curious enough to actually question him further, and left the kitchen for her room again. "I do hope you can forgive an old man for his follies." He whispered and turned his attention back to his stew.

After that odd conversation, and actually sneaking up on her grandfather, Yugi returned to her room clad in her red pajama pants and a baggy black shirt with her hair bound in a simple bun on top of her head. She turned to the left as soon as she entered her room and pulled open the doors for her closet and dropped her dirty clothes into the hamper that was on the floor amongst the five pairs of shoes for varying seasons and three board game boxes, seeing three school uniforms were hanging up with varying shirts and skirts while the top shelf had several boxes piled on it. Shutting the door she turned back to her bed and decided that she had wasted enough time and that those four pieces needed to be put in place before her mind beat her senseless for procrastinating.

Crossing the room for the third or fourth time that evening, she plopped down on the bed and picked up the first floating piece and slid into place above where the eye of Horus obviously went. "Nearly done." she muttered to herself, ignoring the fact that the metal definatley was told beneath her fingertips and that something was obviously watching her and it was getting on her nerves. The next two pieces easily slid into place, forming the upper right corner of the puzzle and the lower main point and left only one hole in the center of the front of the puzzle and the last piece was in her hand.

She did not feel the excited energy that flowed in the gold beneath her fingertips or the fact that the shadows were practically whipping around her. Everything looked to be ordealy to her, as it should have been, but the hair on the back of her neck had definitely risen again and her arms were covered with goosebumps. Yugi took in a deep breath and slid the final piece into place, letting the breath out as it 'clinked' and locked into place. Suddenly she felt as if she was frozen in her place, her right hand cradling the back of the puzzle and her left index finger pressed against the eye of Horus. Shivering, her eyes darted around due to the fact that her limbs did not respond.

The breath was knocked from her lungs and her eyes widened as something seemed be trying to crush her chest while a hiss tickled her ear. The next moment she was in pain and if she could have screamed, she would have. Her body fell back, the puzzle clutched in both hands, but she felt her conciousness, her soul, being pulled into the shadows. What had her grandfather given her?

* * *

**A/N: **I figured that the author's notes and such at the end would be better. Anyways, I'll try and update once a week on Saturday... I believe I am far enough head that college will not interfere, or is that the other way around? Anyways... the pairings are: Yami Yugi/Yugi, Yami Bakura/Ryou, Yami Malik/Malik, Seto/Jou... Otogi/Shizuka, Mokuba/Hotaru, and the rest are on the ropes right now.

**Blizzardtorment: **Ni! Sorry about that, but I have been discussing this with a friend of mine for awhile now. I just hope that the other changes I make agee with any that do review or such. Thank you!

**FifthDayOfMay **and **Bellahshade:** Thanks, your reviews also made my day when I seen them.

**S2Teennovelist:** To be honest, this is the longest review I have had in awhile. I know about the Sailor Moon and Harry Potter parts and I hope to actually change them in some way because I was writing like an adolescent, or at least rushing everything through which is not good. I will try and balance them out more, but I cannot help if I portray a few in a bad light. So far I plan on keeping Setsuna as a thorn in their side, as well as Queen Serenity and Mamoru, while giving Beryl a true reason to go to war with Serenity. The other character I was planning on helping out a bit was Hotaru, since the Seto/Mokuba pairing is not in this version, and pairing her with Mokuba (someone has to continue the Kaiba line and Hotaru would fit in well with them). That is all I know at this early in the game.


	3. PANICK ATTACK

**C. PANICK ATTACK**

_Here in the shadows  
Phantom in the night  
Attack with out warning  
A signal showed light_

_Fill my heart with terror  
do the worst you can do  
Shivers up my spine  
I'm not afraid of you_

_I will not run  
Come the dawn  
the light of day  
Will burn your shadows all away  
_

_Panick Attack, _from the album "Yu-Gi-Oh!: Music to Duel By"

* * *

The pain that had burst from being pulled into the shadows faded to a dull throb in her chest. She felt a cold floor beneath her cheek and her palms with her hair spread around her, but she could not move her limbs at all. Something was weighing her down and the moments of extreme pain that she had just experienced did not help matters at all. Just what in the hell did her grandfather give her? "I should have researched it." She hissed out, flexing her fingers and trying to push her upper body up as the first step to standing up and finding out where the hell she was.

It was through pure determination that she got to her knees and sat back on her heels with a wince, seeing the oppressive weight did not leave. A few deep breaths, she brought her right hand up and brushed her hair to the side so that she could get a clear view of where she was and wished that she had not done that. The shadows were whipping around and a few reaching for her. She could see the large columns with the hint of markings that covered the entire length with and muted color at the tops, the walls had the same markings with several statues she could see well-enough to recognize. "Where am I?" she whispered, eyes darting about in hopes of finding a means of escaping this dark place.

Footsteps echoed as she tried to glare at the source, which was off to her left, but fatigue was starting to take its toll on her. The shadows had a mind of their own as they curled around her, under her clothing, through her hair as if she was a favorite pet to them. She brought a hand up and batted a few away from her face, but that did nothing, and the foot steps stopped before her but she only seen the silhouette of a teenage boy with sharp, glowing red eyes. The long fingers of his right hand combed through her hair and stopped at the back of her neck, where his thumb was pressing against the nape of her neck, while his left hand was caressing her right cheek softly.

Yugi was not going to say anything, she went as far as to biting her lip to resist temptation. The shadows seemed to respond to the young man's whims, if the tendrils of shadows that were merging with his body were anything to go off of. A hiss of pain escaped her lips after he slipped his hand from her hair and shoved her back, which meant she landed on her back and found her wrists bound to the floor while the young man stared down at her. He crouched down in front of her spread knees and carefully maneuvered her legs so they were spread out and not trapped in that painful position under her. She growled with his touch and glared at him, but the red-eyed shadow did not care one bit and showed her this by slipping his right hand under the hem of her shirt and gently raking his blunt nails across her navel.

Biting her lip, she kept glaring at the young man that had obviously pinned her to the stone floor with the shadows and was lazily pressing her limits of being in physical contact with others. If she could move, or when she could, she would wipe that smug look right from his eyes… She was snapped from her daydream of physically smashing the young man's face off when something cold and almost feathery was pressed against the skin just above the waistline of her pajama pants and just below her navel and the hand that was stroking her navel rested just above it. Yugi definitely jerked to the side and pulled at her restraints as his left hand was cupping her right hip, thumb brushing against her side. "Get the hell off of me." She hissed out raising her head up enough to stare down at him, but he just ignored her in favor of pressing his face into her stomach. As his right hand inched farther up her shirt, she mustered up enough energy to knee him in the side, getting a hiss of shock and pain from him which she pressed her lips into a thin line in order to suppress the urge to smirk definitely at him.

No more of a challenge, she hoped.

Suddenly she felt a weight on her chest and gasped out for breath, head falling back to the stone painfully. She grit her teeth to hold back the hiss of pain, but the young man's hands left her form and he drew away from her but that victory was shortly lived when he straddled her waist and leaned forward, hands on either side of her head with his face an inch from her own. Yugi was not a happy camper right now and the smug look that was still there mocking her, daring her to try something else. "No." she growled out as he leaned closer, she squeezed her eyes shut and curled her hands into fists. Suddenly she felt the weigh of the shadows disappear and she could breathe and move easier, the other thing was that she felt no one close to her.

Her eyes snapped open and she seen that the area around her was clear of the moving shadows and the young man. Sitting up she noted the floor was made of a smooth stone that was tan in color and the columns had hieroglyphics on them with red and yellow tops trimmed in blue. "Ancient Egypt?" she whispered, slowly getting to her feet and dusting her clothes off. "This makes absolutely no sense." She added taking a few steps forward, tugging nervously on the hem of her shirt and feeling highly exposed in this unknown place. Turning in a full circle she stopped when she seen narrowed crimson eyes staring at her from deeper in the shadows, obviously angry about her defiance.

He approached again, getting close enough to where she could see a silhouette of his form again, but the light around her retreated as he got closer to its edge. Not wanting that, she bit her lip and tried to will the light to hold its ground, not knowing that she was the one controlling it. The shrinkage of the light stopped and started to press back against him, and if that amused look in his eyes could be anything she would not like the results if she lost. Something hit her in the back of the head, breaking her concentration on winning the staring match and the light between her and the young man shrank by a foot, but she easily halted his progress there and turned to see what hit her. "Kuriboh?" she muttered with a frown, turning her back to her opponent and crouching down to poke the fuzz ball with green arms and legs.

"Kuri!" it squeaked out as she brought her hand back and blinked a few times as it jumped at her, which prompted the only reaction to get out of the way but she fell back on her butt with the creature clutching her shirt.

"What is going on?" she whined, looking ready to cry as she automatically brought her left arm in close and rested a hand on the back of the brown, furry creature and looked down into its wide blue eyes. "A kuriboh." She stated as it squeaked and happily stayed in place.

Something shifted in front of her as her head jerked up. The pressure was gone again as was the glowing red eyes of her annoying host or stalker or whoever he was and that was not a good thing, all things considered. Yugi, against her better judgment, cautiously moved forward as the light around her seemed to shrink back to her body and the duel monster holding on to her like a cat. As she ventured farther into the dark Egyptian palace, or so she assumed that was where she stepped into, she felt edgy and a bit worried about getting back home.

After a couple minutes, maybe an hour, of walking down the corridor that never ended the kuriboh attached to her shirt let down and jumped out of her arms and took off. "Wait!" she cried jogging after him, her bare feet barely making a sound on the stone floor. The creature turned right, on a dime with a bit of a slide, and disappeared into a room that was definitely pitch black and made her freeze on the spot.

There was absolutely no way she was entering there willingly. Something or someone was definitely waiting for her and was very smug, even if she could hear no laughter or see a face with lips twisted into a smirk. "This has to be how the fly felt when he was in the spider's parlor." She whispered to herself, extending her left hand out into the shadows and waved around a bit. She jumped about a foot in the air when a cold hand grab her wrist and roughly yanked her into the shadows. Yugi let out a grunt as she was than pulled to the owner of the hand, the entire front of her body molded against a hard chest with his other hand braced against the small of her back. She struggled, yet again, but he was not letting go of her this time around as the shadows coiled around her again but the power from before was not responding. "Mercy." She muttered as a cold pair of lips traced down her right jaw line as he let go of her left wrist so that his hand came up to cup her cheek, arm still pinned between them with the shadows keeping her other arm in place.

He tilted her head back, thumb beneath her left ear, and kissed her throat, her heart was fluttering much like a hummingbird by this point. She felt the power that had saved her before fighting, but eventually it decided to lay dormant in the face of the shadows. He paused and was whispering something against her throat in a language she did not understand, she could tell by the occasional brushing of lips against her skin with a cold breath. "What are you doing?" she hissed as he drew back and brought his left hand up to pet her hair and still said nothing to her in a language she knew.

Her eyes widened as the hand at her face slowly drifted downwards, across her collarbone to rest his palm against her breast and above her heart. His fingers did not flex and he did not move his hand as he drew his head back, smug crimson eyes meeting her own angry amethyst eyes. He than leaned forward and kissed her flat on the mouth, using his power to coerce her compliance she figured as his tongue slipped into her mouth. Yugi glared at him as he did not draw back, but she felt energy crackle over her heart as he drew back from the kiss and smirk.

This time Yugi did scream as pain tore through her body, centered over her heart. He did not let go of her as she tried to get her body to respond, but the pain had intensified again and she heard her voice echo again. It felt like something was reaching into her body and pulling something from her, something she could not name or even begin to figure out what it was. "Yugi!" she heard a voice call out, but it sounded rather far away and too muffled for her to actually be able to tell who it was.

"Who?" she whispered as the shadows seemed to tighten their hold on her.

"Yugi!" this time the voice was a bit clearer and she could tell it was her grandfather and he sounded rather frantic.

"Yugi!" her grandfather was definitely closer this time and she could feel him shaking her shoulder as the dark world and the crimson eyes faded. Automatically, she batted weakly at his hand and heard him sigh in relief, but she did not open her eyes nor did she feel compelled to actually move. "Are you alright? I've been trying to wake you up for the last ten minutes and almost called the ambulance because you were also rather cold to the touch…" he trailed off as she opened her eyes and stared at him with a lazy look.

"I guess the stress of high school caught up with me." She said in a raspy voice, trying to smile. To be honest, Yugi could not tell if she was or not, her entire face was numb and her limbs heavy with exhaustion. Whatever had happened really sucked the energy out of her.

"Stay in bed, if you don't feel better in the morning you are going to stay home." he stated as she shut her eyes again and relaxed. "I didn't know you dyed your hair earlier." She heard him mutter as the door shut. In moments she was asleep and no dreams disturbed her that night.

Hours passed in the blink of an eye, as per what happens when someone sleeps, and a shrill alarm suddenly went off and caused poor Yugi to groan. The headache she woke up with magnified the sound to something deadly, resulting in the alarm clock hitting the ground and two or three pieces scattering across the floor due to the impact. The movement made her groan, feeling that her limbs were heavy still, and her chest was burning. She curled up in the fetal position under the blankets her grandfather had obviously pulled up over her after she fell asleep, knowing full well there was no way in hell that she would be getting to school and sit through the usual day.

Something the was smooth metal with at least one sharp corner poked into her back, causing her to gowl in annoyance and shift away from it without any extra limb movements. "Yugi! It's six-thirty, time get up and face the day!" Sugoroku shouted as he opened the door and seen she was not up and about, as usual, and was glaring at him from her nest of blankets. "No school for you, I would rather not receive a call about a catfight."

"Thank you, Grandpa." She muttered and just laid in bed willing her body to not be in pain.

"I'll grab you some asprin and a glass of water, you should be up and about by tomorrow evening." With that he retreated back to the kitchen as she twitched and stared at the door. It was going to be a hellishly long day, at this rate any ways, and she was tempted to blame it on the golden puzzle that had been poking her in the back moments ago.

After the asprin and water, as well as three hours of dozing, she finally uncurled herself from the fetal position and shuffled her way out of her room and to the bathroom. After going through the usual routine of going to the bathroom she stood before the mirror, which opened outwards to show a few minor hygiene things on the inside and that was where she pulled her toothbrush from with a white tube of toothpaste. She turned the water on with her left hand and closed the mirror with her right hand, which held the tooth brush, and peered into the mirror for a moment before picking the toothpaste back up and unscrewing the lid.

Freezing, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she glanced back at the mirror to confirm what she thought she had seen. Her once red hair had two new additions to it, two locks that framed her face were whitish blonde with a majority of her hair being pitch black with red tips. "What the hell?" she whispered, abandoning the toothbrush and toothpaste on the side of the sink and pulling the hair tie from her hair, letting the loosely coiled hair fall over her shoulder to mid-back. She pulled the blonde bangs away from the rest and inspected it before reaching back and pulling the rest of the coil over her shoulder, revealign that the last three inches of her hair was red.

This could not be another prank from grandpa, he did not even like hair dye, and the Kaiba brothers were busy last night. Squeezing her eyes shut she let go of her hair and braced her hands on the sink, bowing her head and starting to take deep breaths in order to calm down. Getting incoherently angry was not a way to go about this, be calm and be peaceful…

She felt something stir as a cold arm was drapped across her left shoulder with a hand petting the coil of hair, the feeling that someone was standing behind her, and a pair of lips brushing her ear in a teasing manner. She stood straight up as the feeling did not fade, nor did the feeling of a smug victory and amusement and those were clearly not her own feelings. "Why do I have the sudden urge to see if I could melt down gold on the stove without damaging a pot?" she asked her reflection, mentally sewaring a blue streak as she seen a flash of amused crimson eyes before everything faded.

"Yugi, are you talking to yourself again?" she heard Sugoroku ask.

"Unfortunately I am, Grandpa, and I think things just got worse." Yugi told him cryptically and set about to finish brushing her teeth and see if she could settle in for the rest of the day.

After another shower, a covert attempt to wash her hair and see if the coloring was real, she dressed in a pair of black flare jeans and a plain, dark blue long-sleeved shirt with a black belt that had her dueling deck attached to one side. Before making her way to the kitchen she made sure her hair was bound in a bun, with only the blonde bangs free and hanging to her shoulders, and that brought on the rummaging around in the refrigerator for a container of the left-over stew to heat up. By three-thirty Yugi was than down in the shop organizing the card catalogue to keep entertained since day-time television was not very appealing and reading would put her back to sleep. She heard the bell ring before a slightly high pitched voice called out her name, causing her to look up with fingers poised over the 'S' section of the catalogue. "Mokuba! How was school?" she asked as the twelve-year-old pre-teen grinned at her, brushing back some of his long spiky hair.

"Not bad, but Aniki said that you did not go to school today." Kaiba Mokuba stated with a frown, looking ready to scold her for missing school.

"I did not mean to, but it was a rough night into a rough morning." She told him as he pouted just as the door opened and the bell rang again. "Kaiba." She greeted with a nod as he returned it, but with a frown and an annoyed look.

"You left me alone with _them_." Seto coldly stated as Yugi sat back on her stool and rested her elbows on the counter top, lacing her fingers together and looking only slightly curious. "Those demonic girls would not leave me alone today so I had to leave early and Bakura gave me your notebook, since you did not arrive. Everything was thrown off balance." He stated as she blinked in surprise and than started to laugh, bowing her head so that her forehead was resting against her knuckles and her shoulders were shaking.

"You are so dramatic, Kaiba." She got out as Mokuba snickered as well, ignoring the glare from his older brother.

"For that, Motou Yugi, we are going to leave and have dinner now." Seto stated as she stared at him blankly for a moment before sitting as straight as a stiff board, resembling a prairie dog for a moment.

"Two-and-a-half hours early?" Yugi exclaimed, sitting straight and ridged, as he crossed his arms this time and was looking very smug. "Just for a little teasing?" she accused as he nodded. "Unfair!" she declared as Mokuba moved out of the way.

"Motou-san, I am taking your granddaughter out for a bit!" Kaiba shouted, maybe bellowed considering the fact that he was a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company and it was beneath him to 'shout' like normal people, and moved forward, hand lashing out and grabbing her wrist. She twitched at the déjà vu, but thankful that his touch was warmer than the shadowed young man's.

"Have fun on your date, kids!" the older man replied as she was out the shop door, Mokuba waving at them with a large smile. He carefully pushed her into the back of his limo, thankful that people were not around at this time, and slid in beside her. The door shut as the driver took off and Yugi was trying to get her mind to catch up with what was happening, obviously last night threw her into the Twilight Zone.

"Kaiba, what is going on?" she asked after a moment as he looked smug about something, and that look was starting to wear on her nerves. The phantom touch returned, this time it was an arm that was around her waist with another on her knee with a hiss of anger directed towards the brunette CEO.

"Just what Sugoroku-san said, Yugi, a date." He stated as she definitely sat straight up with her eyes wide and jaw dropped a bit. "Dinner and what not." With that he waved a hand as she tried to say something, dismissing any attempt she may have to escape their 'date' and all this did was to further enflame the annoyance the shadow man had at her friend-turning-boyfriend.

"Okay, sounds very interesting." Yugi replied as he let his smirk turn into a true smile. "Where is dinner and define 'what not'." With that she relaxed a bit, despite the ghostly fingers digging into her side and her knees and growled at the fact that she was even daring to agree.

"You'll see." Kaiba answered cryptically and looked out the window as she than pouted, deciding that attempting to interrogate him would not be worth the effort. Surprises were good, even if she knew there would be bruises in her side and around her knee in a few hours and that the shadow young man was real and not a figment of her imagination. She turned to look out the other tinted window of the limo, hiding the fact that she winced at the feeling of blunt nails digging into her skin this time instead of fingertips. "What possessed you to change your hair coloring?" he asked in a curious tone and broke his usual untouchable air by reaching out and coiling her left bang around his left index finger, which caused her to blush a bit at his closeness.

"Don't really know, to be honest." She answered honestly as he let the hair slid from his finger as he pulled away to sit back against the seat, leaving a comfortable silence between them as the driver turned on some music.

* * *

Rewrite Completed: Sunday, 23 March 2008

A/N: There be Yami, but he won't have a true physical appearance, description wise, till Duelist Kingdom.

**s2Teennovelist:** No trouble, I like the long reviews. I did fix that issue in the first chapter, thank you for pointing it out because I missed it when I made my decision. As far as Ryou, I don't know yet... I'll see where he takes it first. . Hmm... as far as his relationship with Yami Bakura there will be a history lesson during Duelist Kingdom... not sure where but Ryou and Yugi might have a heart-to-heart after a Shadow Game. shrugs That is in the making. Grandpa's phone call will be revealed soon, I hope. . It'll be different.


	4. THE GAUNTLET IS THROWN

**1. THE GAUNTLET IS THROWN**

_They got the upper hand  
But that won't last for long  
It's time to take a stand  
And show them that you're strong_

_These duel identities  
They struggle for control!  
Two personalities  
Inhabiting one's soul!_

_It's not a match you're in  
It's much more like a brawl!  
The only way to win  
You've gotta stay your own!_

_Your Move,_ from the "Yu-Gi-Oh: Music to Duel By"

* * *

To Ryou's annoyance, he found himself forcibly brought into Mazaki Anzu's circle of 'friends' on his second day of being in Domino High School. He had attempted to get close to Kaiba, but nothing worked, and it did not help that Yugi had not shown up to school that day when her presence would have been most welcome. He was standing beside a table that was set up for duelist in one of the more social parts of KaibaLand, seeing the virtual dueling arena was for either the serious duels or large tournaments.

The voice in his head was bored and making rude comments towards everything and anything. His first meeting with Katsuya Jounichi had not been pleasant, being called a girl repeatedly and hit on a few times before he got the clue aside, not to mention he had a tendency to pick fights with people that are better than he was even with that unholy luck he had. Honda Hiroto, who had went on at length about his position on the school Beautification Committee, and had tried to treat him as one of the boys, to Ryou's utter annoyance at his boisterous nature. He knew that these two were probably akin to thugs to Anzu, or the intimidation factor the brown haired girl needed to stay on top of the school. His thoughts on Anzu, herself, were not very good and he was inclined to agree with the voice in his head on this one.

_I am actually inclined to agree with you, Yami, but I cannot stand high pitched sounds and I am sure her scream could hit such a high pitch that glass would break. _Ryou commented off-handily as he watched Anzu arrogantly grin as she dominated the duel between her and Hiroto.

"Ha! My Queen's Double takes out the rest of your life points." Anzu stated as Hiroto loudly bemoaned his fate while Jou was laughing, slapped the brown haired and eyed boy on the back with a few words of sympathy. He glanced around, hoping to see someone or something that could possibly distract them long enough so he could escape, only to see no one around that could be used as his cannon fodder.

_What in the name of Ra? _his Yami snarled out as both felt a rather concentrated source of shadows, but these ones were definitely more wild than his own. His Yami was now shifting about like a predator that had become the prey, a wild animal that had been caged and it was making him feel very worried. _Chibi-Hikari, get out of here. If you don't, be careful. If you are not careful, we are screwed. _he told Ryou in a growl.

"What are they doing here?" Anzu sneered as she stared at the entrance to the area in which they were. Ryou blinked a few times and followed her gaze, like the other two, and seen an amused Kaiba talking with a rather exhausted looking Yugi.

"They look to be talking." Jou stated, but the white haired teenage boy knew he did not hide the twitch at that comment and bit his tongue to make sure he did not snap at the blonde boy.

_Let's see, KaibaLand is owned by Kaiba Corp and Kaiba Seto owns and runs Kaiba Corp… _his Yami grumbled and than fell silent again as he noted the one notable physical change on Yugi.

_She skipped school because of a weird dye job? _Ryou deadpanned, unfortunately his Yami did not respond with his usual biting comment and twisted sense of humor. Now something was definitely wrong with this situation and he was half tempted to fake being asleep and going to see why the sadistic spirit was acting so skittish.

"What the hell did she do to her hair?" he heard Anzu hiss as Kaiba took a hold of Yugi's elbow and guided her through the room to a table in the corner.

"It seems like Kaiba is the driving force behind this date of theirs." Hiroto stated as Yugi sat down and both pulled out their decks and started to shuffle. "Is something different about her?"

"Besides the fact she is actually out with THE Kaiba Seto?" the brown haired girl growled out as her fist met the table top, causing the two boys to jump in surprise and Ryou to roll his eyes at her impending temper tantrum. "What possessed her to do that to her hair? I mean red stands out enough, but blonde and black? Please." With t hat she waved her hand and gathered her deck up again.

_The hair coloring… it could not be. He was bound in blood and souls, never to be released! _his Yami shouted in fear and anger and Ryou thought he was about to take his near physical form and cause trouble. In his distraction of staring at the board, since it was more interesting than his self-imposed friends, he found himself pulled bodily from his chair and drug towards the corner by Hiroto while Anzu led them.

Yugi seen the movement of the group towards their table from the corner of her eye, knowing they would have eventually made their way over to harass them. It was just in Anzu's nature to cause such a ruckus and why the brunette liked to focus on her, she would never know. They drew their cards and settled in, Yugi being the first one to go since Kaiba was being a gentleman. "So the love birds finally come out." Anzu declared with her hands on her hips and her nose in the air, Yugi made a 'hmm'ing sound as she organized the seven cards in her right hand before laying a card in the defensive position and adding a trap card and motioning to Kaiba.

"Give up, Yugi, no one has beaten Kaiba here in Duel Monsters." Jou stated as he leaned on her shoulder, getting a glare from the girl as she laid the cards in her left hand down and stared up at him. Kaiba definitely glared from beneath the fringe of brown that nearly covered his eyes.

"Remove your arm from my shoulder or I'll remove it for you." She growled, eyes flashing blood red for a moment, but that moment was enough to have Ryou's Yami feeling twitchy, nervous, and ready to leave the country. Ryou himself had the overwhelming urge to become a vegetarian and live in a commune, but he shoved that to the side in favor of watching as things unfolded. Jou nervously laughed and stood straight before taking a step away from Yugi, it was during this that Kaiba made him move of laying down a card in the defensive position.

"A bit snippy, aren't you?" Jou grumbled crossing his arms as she picked her cards back up and drew a card from her deck and than put a card down face-up, the spellcaster Rouge Doll with an attack of 1600 and defense of 1000. She attacked his face down card, which Kaiba flipped to show that it was a dinosaur card that was definitely under the attack points of the Rouge Doll.

"What did you expect, a hug and smile in greeting for butting into something?" Yugi coolly asked as Kaiba snorted, obviously agreeing as the next few rounds moved quickly and the life-points slowly dropped on both sides.

_Chibi-Hikari, you might want to get out soon. _Ryou's Yami warned him as they both felt something malevolent stir and the hint of a hand braced against her back and the flash of her eyes was a definite sign.

"Nothing else to do?" Kaiba asked as Yugi was playing off of luck and her second Swords of Revealing Light, while setting up a defense. He never got an answer to that because the quartet was silent in face of Yugi's calm and patience while Kaiba managed to summon his third Blue-Eyes White Dragon and than fused them together to form the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, causing gasps.

"She's done for!" Jou boomed as many others in the area wondered over, curious to what was happening.

"The girl's doomed." Another stated as Yugi drew a card and than laid a card down in the last open space.

"You're joking." Anzu said with a blanched look overtaking her features as the rest were silent. The last attack space had the card Exodia the Forbidden One lying innocently just as Yugi displayed the rest of her hand, showing all five pieces of Exodia with a Monster Reborn. By the rules of the game she automatically won the duel, causing cheers from those around as well as shocked looks and whispering.

Kaiba Seto had been defeated. As the crowds dispersed and the two gathered up their cards, the word was destined to get out quickly. Both knew this, even if they did not want it to get out, so as Yugi gathered her deck up and placed it in its case on her right hip just as Kaiba tucked his into the inner pocket of his trench coat and glared at the still lingering crowd. They thinned rather quickly at that point and he forcibly pulled her from the room before Anzu and her group could recover enough to pounce.

"A rematch later?" she innocently asked as he smirked, not letting go of her hand as she blushed.

"That would be nice." he answered with a nod and led her away from the main area of KaibaLand, cursing the nosey public, and made a beeline for the stairs that led to the private offices on the second floor. He drug her through the few cubicles, past gawking employees, and into a main office. He let her go to shut the door, which Yugi was thankful for as she rubbed her wrist and glanced around. The place was simply furnished with a desk in front of a large window and two chairs in front of that with a laptop in the center of the desk with the needed hook ups. She sat down in one of the chairs as Kaiba moved around the desk and sat down in the comfy, leather chair and crossed his arms as he sat back.

"Gotta love a peanut gallery." She wryly commented as he snorted, but than looked curious.

"How did you manage to draw the last card you needed, Yugi?" he asked after a moment, considering everything he knew about her deck and the probability of being able to draw the cards in a few turns. If he did not know her any better he would have accused of her cheating, but from grabbing her wrist those few times and knowing that she would never cheat unless bored and the situation was not serious.

"There is a little concept that my grandfather always said to trust." Yugi replied in a sage tone, clapping her hands together as if she was at a Zen temple and bowing her head a bit. "The Heart of the Cards, my student, is that which you must trust. You will have to put your heart in to your deck and, once you accomplish that level of understanding, anything is possible." The look Kaiba gave her after that was totally worth making a fool of herself, seeing Yugi had never seen him gain that true 'are you insane' look ever before, and she cracked up laughing, a hand covering her mouth as his left eye twitched. "It's true! The more you don't respect your deck or put your heart in to it the harder it is to win simple duels."

"Yugi, has Sugoroku-jisan been cooking again?" Kaiba asked with a skeptical look as she sat back with her arms crossed, pretending he did not just ask that and trying not to admit anything. He only knew about that last time because he had been there when she last ate something that was not soup or stew that her grandfather made and that day was forever stricken from her memory and meatloaf was not on the forbidden list of things to never cook again.

"No comment." She replied and looked away, dropping her hands into her lap as he sighed.

It was around eight-thirty that evening when Kaiba dropped her off back at the game shop and picked up his grinning little brother who hugged Yugi and climbed into the limo waving at her. As they drove away, she turned to head back in all the while shaking her head, it seemed that life would be a bit more interesting now. Her hand was on the knob to the game shop door when she felt the amusement of the shadowed young man, but it was tinged with jealousy, as the door suddenly jerked open and she was pushed in. She stumbled a few steps, staying a bit hunched over when she finally regained her balance, as the door shut behind her and she glared at where the shadow had been from over her shoulder as her grandfather smiled at her. "Did you kids have fun?" he asked as she stood straight up, brushing some invisible dirt from her light blue shirt and than brushing back errant strand of blonde from her face.

"Until a group pushed themselves into our duel and decided they would not leave and that drew a crowd." Yugi told him with a sigh as she made her way to the counter. "Slow evening?" she glanced around and seen that no one was about and that a few shelves needed restocked for the next day.

"Only this last hour, it seems Seto's appearance here drew enough interest that people have been stopping in all of the late afternoon into the evening hours." Sugoroku stated happily while rubbing his hands together and thinking about the profit he had made. "We can restock in the morning, you still have yet to tell me about those cards." He stated as her eyes widened and she slapped her forehead. "You forgot." He state as she turned on her heel and took a few steps to the door, locking it and turning the sign to closed before turning to him with a smile.

"I have an excuse!" she declared crossing the shop floor as Sugoroku turned the stairway light on and slowly made his way up the stairs first, she paused on the first step and turned off the lights in the shop and followed him into the dark living room, removing his shoes at the door. Yugi bent down and untied her tennis shoes and toed them off as he proceeded to turn on the two lamps, allowing them to navigate the room without injury now, and she closed the door behind her and locked it as well.

The living room was simple with a cream colored carpet covering the entire floor, in front of the door there was one large carpet laid length wise, seeing it measured three and half feet wide and four feet long, with a leaf design in browns and reds. Against the wall opposite of the door was a brown sofa with a brown recliner in the corner, both separated by a wooden table that had a simple lamp in the center on a white doily and the remote for the television and VCR in front of it, the phone and answering machines was to the right of the lamp. Across from those pieces of furniture was a simple coffee table covered in magazines and papers with a television on a three-foot tall shelf unit with a VCR on the top most shelf and DVD or videotapes on the other two shelves. "What, pray tell, is this excuse?" he asked shuffling over to the coffee table and picking up one of the archaeology periodicals he had and making his way back to the recliner.

"Recovering from whatever hit me last night, therefore I slept most of the day and by time I did get a chance to do anything on my own time I was on a date! So ha!" at this point she was pointing a finger at him with a wide smile while Sugoroku quirked an eyebrow in question, sitting down in his arm chair in the corner.

"So you accept that you were just on a date? No denial or anything?" he asked, making his granddaughter blush red again and hurry into the kitchen. "Ah, the joys of youth." He whispered to himself while picking up the remote from where it had been on the table to the right of him and turned on the television, flipping through the channels until he hit one of the twenty-four-seven news stations.

"What would you like for dinner, Grandpa?" Yugi called out as he opened the periodical to a random page and made an 'hmmm'ing sound.

"How about okonomiyaki with chicken, peppers, onions, and cheddar cheese?" he asked as there was no sound from the kitchen, but Sugoroku knew she probably just flinched. "Tempura and soy sauce with some rice." He amended as the clink of dishes being put away and clunk of pans being shifted began.

Twenty minutes later, he heard her frying something and turned the volume on the television up a bit. _"Maximillion Pegasus, the CEO and owner of Industrial Illusions Corporation, announced his intention to hold a grand Duel Monsters tournament in a conference this evening."_ The male reporter stated as Sugoroku looked up from his article on the study of waste distribution on American colonial sites to stare at the picture of a man with silver hair that was at least to his shoulders, the right side of his face obscured by the curtain of hair, in a magenta suit with a condescending smile on his face.

"Wonder why this one made it into the news." Yugi asked as she entered the living room with a large plate in her left hand, on that was varying tempura from shrimp to fried whole green beans with a small dish of soy sauce to the side, and in her right hand a bowl of rice and chopsticks. He sat his magazine on the arm of his recliner as she sat the plate in his lap and handed him the rice bowl and chopsticks, the rice bowl sat on the table as he eagerly dug into the freshly made food.

"Does it matter?" was his rhetorical question as she flopped down on the couch to watch the program.

_"We will go live to that conference now."_ The man stated, finally ending whatever rambling he had been doing, and the screen switched over to an official conference with Pegasus standing at a podium smiling at the reporters as flash bulbs went off and all the journalist and reporters vied for his attention.

_"The tournament I am setting up is not just any tournament that any Duelist can enter, but one where the Regional Champions and a few invited Duelists will pit their decks and minds against one another in a duel of all times!"_ he stated jovially with arms spread. _"This will take place away from the public eye, on a private island, to ensure that there is no cheating or outside help and to prove who is the King of Games."_

"Why does that scream 'rapist sign up here'?" Yugi asked as she leaned forward, elbows on her knees with her hands hanging limply in front of her.

"The prospect of a private island and taking teenagers to said island." Soguroku replied between bites of his tempura green beans. "I smell a lawsuit in the future, unless he is going to force them all to sign waivers and allow cameras to cover the duels and what-not."

"Waivers are a given, this is definitely a case where someone could be in danger." She replied and got to her feet again, stretching her arms above her head. "I'll go look through my deck, need to change a few things anyways if Kaiba is going to do what I think he is going to do." With that she headed towards the small hallway.

"Back to Kaiba?" he asked as she paused.

"I think this may be a passing fancy, Grandpa, a prelude into life. Right now we are feeling each other out, nothing is set in stone." Yugi replied with a sigh, trying to figure out why she suddenly felt like that. "I guess he maybe falling into what people think, but I don't think it will work out." Yugi realized that it was not her speaking, that it was someone else that had shoved her mind to the side.

"That is rather cold." The older man said as he picked up his rice bowl and watched her from the corner of his eyes, chopsticks poised over the mound of rice.

"Just a feeling, Grandpa." Yugi said, sounding a bit hollow in her tone, as she found herself back in control of her body and mouth and walking into her room, closing the door behind her and leaning on it. "What are you doing?" she asked herself as the shadowed young man appeared sitting on her bed, crimson eyes serious as she slid down the door and made eye contact with him as he shrugged his shoulders and got up.

Yugi frowned as the shadowed man approached her dresser, where her main deck and the box that holds the rest of her cards. With a defeated sigh she reached over to her bag and pulled out the four packets he had left for her, carefully opening the foil covering as the shadow sat the box down in front of her and than moved off to her right side, but he than pulled her into his lap and was reward with a shocked yelp. She just relaxed as his right arm coiled around her waist with his hand under her shirt and palm pressed against her navel with fingers stroking the hem of her pants. His left hand was resting on her left knee and his head was bent so she felt every breath against the left side of her throat and the whisper of hair against her cheek, his presence did not annoy her or make her question things as much as it did the night before and that scared her.

Leaning against his chest, she proceeded to spread the cards around her while sorting them into traps, spells, counters, monsters, special summons, and such. The last card in her hand was the Dark Magician, and that was after five minutes of careful sorting, and she felt the left hand come up and cover her hand while the shadowed young man tightened his hand around her own. "Start with him?" she asked as he kissed her throat. "I'll humor you in this, only because I had no idea where to begin this time around." She swore he was laughing, the movement of his shoulders betraying him, and she sat the card before her and started to pick out varying monsters that did not need a tribute.

Two personalities assembling one deck meant that things would be very interesting.

* * *

A/N: Nothing this time, I think.

**detective1412:** I'll try my best and on the Yami slapping... Anything is possible in the up coming chapters. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

**porygon:** That is what I am trying to do, and hope is working out. So far Ryou is being tolerated by her, Yami Bakura is still a bored spirit but I don't think he totally trusts her either (the whole awakening of the Puzzle). So, the only friends she has right now are the Kaiba brothers (even if Mokuba has yet to make a true, physical appearance). If I am wrong, than I can go back and attempt to change a few things. I'm unsure of Malik yet, but that is because I am not there yet.

**silverwolf:** Well, I update Saturday afternoons or else I'd run out of parts that I already have rewritten... I try to keep at least two ahead, but once college is done I'll have a tiny bit more of free time (another words, no homework).

Rewrite Complete: Friday, 28 March


	5. THE INVITATION TO DUELIST KINGDOM

**2. THE INVITATION TO DUELIST KINGDOM**

_While you where bothering the o-zone  
I'm tryin' to get into the in-zone  
You won't be anything without the chips  
Your lips are quiverin', the time has come..._

_Stalemate! And you don't even know that  
I am notorious for finding  
Weakness in any one too confident  
I see the start of your descent (descent)_

_Time 2 Duel  
Now we get Serious  
You're not invincible  
You must be Delirious_

_Time 2 Duel,_ from the album "Yu-Gi-Oh!: Music to Duel By"

* * *

Despite them being in public that day, not much really happened at school the next day. Domino High students were rather used to the fact that Kaiba and Yugi spent a good chunk of time together, but it was obvious they had no romantic inclination towards one another and it was left at that. Before long a week-and-a-half had passed, the day was September 25, Respect for the Aged Day, and Yugi knew that as soon as she woke up that something would be going horribly wrong later that day. It was just a feeling in her bones, and the fact that the shadowed young man she came to affectionately call 'her Shadow' was restless and constantly batting at the short tassels on the plant holder while perched in the window. This would not have bothered her any other day, but his one foot was pressing against her stomach and got him a glare for every movement that dug his toes into her stomach. "What are you doing?" she grumbled into her pillow as the eyes turned their attention from the plant to her and his head tilted to the side.

"Yugi, who are you talking to?" she heard her grandfather ask from behind the door; obviously forgoing his usual knock this morning.

"My shadow, Grandpa." She replied sitting up, causing his foot to slide down and rest in her lap. "What time is it?"

"You have fifteen minutes to get ready for school." He replied and walked away, his footsteps barely heard as she blinked a few times and stared at the door.

"Fifteen minutes?" she asked as her mind snapped awake and she was out of bed and rushing about, grabbing her uniform and such before throwing open the door and claiming the bathroom for herself. Staying up half the night restocking and doing some of the overdue inventorying, as a gift to her grandfather on Respect for the Aged Day, was a good idea at the time but now she was paying for it. The young man was gone by time she darted out of the bathroom, having completed everything she needed to greet the day, to throw her pajamas back in her bedroom and grab her messenger bag before crossing the living room and slipping her black shoes on and opening the door. "Have a good day, Grandpa, don't stress yourself!" she shouted while passing through the game shop and out the door was the older man chuckled.

Yugi stopped at a street corner, seeing traffic was moving rather quickly and the street walk sign was the orange hand, and decided to go through her bag to see if she had everything down to her wallet and three pencils. She decided to accept defeat when, once again, she found the Millennium Puzzle in with her books and notebooks instead of at the foot of her bed where it was safe. Honestly! Closing the flap, making sure it was secured, she jogged across the crosswalk and down the sidewalk hoping to make it to school on time. "I can't be short four yen! Can you please just wave that? This is for my husband's birthday." a wizened voice as she paused just outside of the one farmer's market in Domino City and seen a hunched over old woman pleading with a particularly hard cashier. The woman was wearing a simple and plain kimono, denoting her age and dedication to the traditional ways, with a shawl around her shoulders and a purse held in her hands.

"I can't help you, ma'am, no money; no produce." He stated with a shrug of the shoulders and Yugi felt that she could not pass this up due to what day it was, plus it never really hurt to do a good deed. While the woman did not look like she was down on her luck, it was obvious that this meant a good bit to her. Yugi, without putting much throught into what she was doing, pulled her wallet from the right side pocket of her bag and opened it, counting out four yen and pulling it out before approaching the arguing duo.

"Excuse me." She stated as both stared at her in surprise, but Yugi ignored their surprise and handed the cashier exactly four yen. "Here." She told the old woman with a smile, carefully putting the money in her wrinkled hand and closed her wallet with a smile and bowed to the older woman. "Have a nice day, obaasan!" she cheerfully stated and rushed off again, tucking her wallet back into its pocket as she went and ignoring the smile from the old woman as she gathered her two bags and went off the other way.

After having two more encounters close to that, one was helping an old man carry a milk crate of bottles and the giving directions to a visiting old couple that had been lost, she made it to school before the bell. Students were still in their clicks talking, finishing up some last minute homework, or even just lounging around getting five more minutes of sleep before they headed to the classroom to perfect their interested or glazed looks. Yugi paused five feet in the gates and let out a sigh, bowing her head a bit as her morning jog caught up with her, and than slowly made her way towards the main entrance of the school.

A minute or two later she had entered Yamanaka's classroom and made for her usual seat, sitting her bag down on the desktop before sliding into the seat with a sigh of exhaustion, while ignoring the shocked stares of a few girls. "Yes?" she drawled out with a lazy look in their direction.

"Nothing, Yugi, it's just you never let your hair down." A meek girl pointed out as Yugi sat straight up and reached back with her right hand realized she had not put her hair up into a bun after brushing it this morning. If she was not paranoid earlier, she was not and that meant the rest of the day would be stressful and hopefully things would improve that night.

"Ah." She intelligently stated as one of the girls giggled.

"What you did with your hair is nice, even if the red suited you." Another commented as they drifted towards her, one girl bravely brushing a finger over her blonde bangs. "Wicked trend." She added brightly, brushing a hand through her black hair. "I wish I could do something like that without having to bleach mine, not healthy for the hair." With that said she wrinkled her nose up as Yugi cracked a smile.

"Your nicer than what Mazaki-san says, you didn't even snap at us for using your first name!" the meek girl stated clasping her hands in front of her as Yugi frowned and tilted her head to the side. That was when Ryou entered the classroom and froze at the picture before him and just stared in shock. This had never happened before, or at least as far as he remembered.

When Ryou woke up that morning with the urge to stay home, he figured he should have listened to his instincts and his Yami's grumbling about evil fluffy rabbits and moronic knights. He resolved to never let the dark spirit watch _Monty Python and the Holy Grail _that late in the evening after having a whole plate of extra-wasabi sushi, because his dreams were not better. The real show that the day would be less than spectacular came when he did a card reading, using his Duel Monster deck, and managed to turn up something rather disheartening. When he entered that classroom, after a relatively quiet morning of listening to Jonouchi and Hiroto talk about the latest official list of those going to Duelist Kingdom, he did not expect to see Yugi speaking to two of their classmates.

From what he had seen of the last week and so on, he did not think her and the other girls of the class were on speaking terms. His Yami shifted and regarded the scene before him without any gutter-mindedness, which was something Ryou noticed had happened after that duel at KaibaLand. The dark spirit would usually make some sort of rude, or crude, comment about the situation and than manically laugh for five minutes after it or whisper dirty things to him while he had to be polite and normal. _It is official, Chibi-Hikari, she has the Millennium Puzzle and a dark spirit, a Yami if you will, as well._ he seriously stated and seemed to be standing straight up, waiting for anything to happen.

_Your point being?_ Ryou asked, feeling a bit out of the loop with his comment.

_The Millennium Puzzle is one of the seven Millennium Items, to which you have one—the Millennium Ring. The Puzzle is the most powerful of the items due to who had it and what it took to contain that soul in it, but that is all I remember._ he stated with a shiver, possibly holding something back or just shivering due to a higher power being so close.

"Ryou, buddy!" Jonouchi boisterously stated clapping him on the back, causing the zoned out Ryou to jump a foot in the air and gain the attention of all those that were in the room at the time. A few giggled or snickered at what happened and he noted that the two girls with Yugi were giggling as they walked away from her and she was set on getting her notebook from her bag and than stowing the bag to the side of her chair. "It's not too safe to space out here." By this point the rest of the class had filed in and taken their seats, waiting for the bell to ring and the teacher to appear to torture them for the day.

"Sorry, I just got caught up in my thoughts." He said with a small, yet fake smile. If you don't remove your hand, I'll… he internally trailed off as his Yami was cackling at his hanging soon-to-be death threat as he watched the two head to their seats in the back left corner of the room and he took his seat in front of Yugi just as Anzu strutted into the room as if she owned the world.

"I have an announcement!" she declared as everyone paused to watch her with looks of vague annoyance with her interruption, seeing this was the fourth time in a week. The first time this happened was when she tried to mock Yugi for defeating Kaiba by saying the young billionaire let her win because he wanted to get into her pants, which resulted in Kaiba's iciest glare to date and Yugi's own unnerving glare. Thankfully no one believed her and had started to question Yugi about dueling Kaiba, which resulted in a daylong game of hide-and-seek. The second one was trying to claim that the two went on a date, but that was quickly shot down when people did not believe her and took it for a ploy that came from the school newspaper.

"What is it now, Anzu?" one girl in the back drawled out, flipping her black hair over her shoulder and looking a bit bored. Ryou had turned in his seat to watch the girl, and Yugi since he still sat in front of her and she looked a bit curious at this impending verbal spar. "You do know that this fixation of Motou-san and Kaiba-san is rather telling. Are you harboring feelings that you don't want to recognize?" she asked, folding her hands on the desk in front of her and trying her best to look like a psycologist from the Fruedian school, causing the boys to snicker and Yugi definitely twitched while Ryou cracked a small smile.

"It is a bit worrisome." Yugi commented, turning back around to stare at Ryou with her right elbow resting on her notebook on the top of her desk, with a lazy grin as the dark haired girl grinned. "I wonder if she realizes she is projecting her secret most desires." She stage whispered, as Anzu turned red as a ripe tomato while looking ready to throw a royal tantrum.

"How dare you accuse me of being so… immoral!" Anzu shrieked as a few cringed and the Yamanaka-sensei, who was entering with his cup of coffee and briefcase, to jump and spill hot coffee down his front and start swearing a blue streak. He paused in mid-curse about the bastard son of a goat and drunken bartender priest to realize that his entire class was definitely gawking at him and looking like they would either want to be elsewhere or to beg him for lessons.

"She's in denial." Another girl stated as Anzu huffed and put her hands on her hips as the teacher stalked out of the room to change his shirt or call in sick, he was not sure yet.

"I was invited to Duelist Kingdom because I won last nights regional." She proudly stated producing the invitation while everyone just stared.

"As in the regional that had only three people sign up because there was no challenge presented to the serious duelist?" a boy drawled out in a bored tone as she flushed again. "Whoopie." He sarcastically added as Anzu made her way to her chair, grumbling as she did so.

"Where is Kaiba-san?" Ryou asked Yugi, who still looked amused as she moved her arm and opened her notebook.

"Honestly, I have no idea. He's been having issues as of late and switched to private tutors until things are resolved, or so the message on the answering machine said." She told him with a frown and a shrug. "This is not the first time it has happened, but it is the most worrisome considering things seem to be very stressful."

"Worrisome?" he echoed as she leaned to the side and than down to dig through her messenger bag.

"Its just a feeling that hasn't left me all week." Yugi admitted and sat up, looking over the tip of her wooden pencil with a sigh. "Like an impending doom, someone walking over my grave, or something along those lines." He turned and watched as she tapped the eraser against the paper without writing anything down, for once, and looking a bit pensive about everything.

"Have these feelings before?" Ryou pressed as she twitched and stopped tapping her pencil.

"No, and now I have writer's block." She growled out and dropped her pencil, choosing to cross her arms and pout. It was at that point he realized things were not good for that day and it was only eight-thirty in the morning. "I'm surprised your annoying friends haven't come over her." It was at that point their teacher entered and glared at them all, causing Ryou to turn around and sit straight up.

"For that earlier, pop quiz!" he declared with a cackle as no one moved. "Who will get a Super F today, eh kiddies?" he insanely declared as the girl to Yugi's left groaned and her forehead met the desktop.

"Someone has watched way too much Fairly Oddparents." She muttered as Yugi let her shoulders slump forward a bit.

"Shiny objects instead of fairies, who is the sacrifice this time?" she muttered as the girl turned her head to the side and cracked a smile.

Lunch could not have arrived any quicker, leaving Yugi to sit at a table alone in the cafeteria and glare at anyone that dared to sit down with her. Her messenger bag sat on the bench at her left and was leaning against her hip while a golden puzzle with a black eye sat on the table in front of her, looking innocent despite its true nature and gaining her no odd looks. That was questionable, considering the thing was solid gold and it seemed like no one else could see it. Before she opened the small lacquered container she picked up the puzzle and held it between both of her hands. "You might need this, I have found that it is the only material that agrees with both skin and the weight of such a burden." A accented voice stated, breaking her trance, and causing her to look over her left shoulder at the hand that held a flat, tan leather strap with simple golden clasps at the ends.

"Burden?" Yugi echoed and brought her left hand up to accept the gift, fingers a bit numb as Ryou sat down by her.

"The Millennium Puzzle, it holds the heaviest burden of all the items." He added as she threaded the leather loop through the top of the puzzle and than put the clasped ends through the loop and pulled it tight.

"How much do you know about the Millennium Dynasty?" Ryou asked as she slipped the leather around her neck and let the puzzle rest below her bust and picked up her chopsticks and carefully broke them apart, rubbing the sides together.

"The unknown Egyptian dynasty, all the tombs and monuments disappeared and the only clue is what the Ishtar family allows us to know." Yugi replied and started to pick at her simple lunch. "Why?" she glanced at him, chopsticks poised over some rice.

"That is my secret for now." He stated as Anzu stormed into the cafeteria and over to where they were sitting as Yugi groaned and dropped her chopsticks on to the table and replaced the lid on her boxed lunch. She had no appetite now and wished that she could just leave now.

"Hey freak!" Anzu all but shouted as she crossed her arms under her chest and tried to look menacing, or a bully. "You think you are so good because you beat Kaiba…" she trailed off as Yugi groaned and placed both elbows on the edge of the table as she could cover her eyes with her hands, perfecting a totally defeated look.

"What the hell do you want, ye of Little Sense?" Yugi whined, wounding like she was ready to start crying at any moment. "And, I do not think that; you do. You are the one that is starting all of this, the school would not even know about that if it wasn't for you."

"You drew Exodia the Forbidden One!" the brunette shouted, drawing the attention of everyone else and causing the overwhelming noise of the cafeteria to drop to a chatter while many snuck glanced at them.

"By pure luck, don't you have other things to do with your time?" Yugi asked as she lifted her head to look at Anzu, her hands over her mouth now. "I'm sure your cronies would love to worship the ground beneath your feet just as I'd like to go find two aspirin and call it a day."

"I will not call it a day!" Anzu shrieked, making a few people cringe and both Ryou and Yugi were a part of that group. "I challenge you to a duel to see who is better!" she declared as Yugi got to her feet, moving her messenger bag over a bit before carefully lifting her left leg up and swinging it over the bench. After securing her balance, and straddling the bench, she picked up her lunch and made sure the lid was secured in place before tucking it away in her bag and than picked up the chopsticks and slid them into a side pocket.

"Challenge not accepted because I do not duel for petty reasons of boosting ones ego or having more rumors and such spread around about me." Yugi snapped as she lost her cool for the first time in all her years at Domino High School, making a few eyes go wide. "There is a lose-lose situation here. I duel you and win, you go bout your merry way of shooting your mouth off about cheating and all that. If I duel and you and happen to lose, you brag that Kaiba just let me win and continue shooting your mouth off about everything else." She hissed out picking the strap of her bag up and slipping it over her head so that it crossed her chest from left shoulder to right hip, just above the Millennium Puzzle, with her bag against the back of her right thigh. "I don't think so and if you dare start anything about me not accepting this challenge, you will regret it. Understood?" Yugi snarled, eyes flashing crimson for a moment as Anzu nodded, feeling rather fearful for her own life.

"I do." She mumbled as Yugi lifted her right leg up and swung it over the bench, smoothing her skirt out afterwards.

"Good, if you don't mind I'm leaving now before I do something that I may regret." With that the tri-color haired girl spun on her heel and skulked out of the cafeteria, leaving silence in her wake and a good many confused classmates. Ryou shivered as he tried to shake off the potent darkness that Yugi had started to radiate at the beginning of her little tirade.

_Well, Chibi-Hikari, I think Yugi has a very potent temper… coupled with the power of the Puzzle we may have to curb Anzu's stupidity or else._ his Yami told him as he batted away the weak tendrils of power with his own brand of power. _It would do us no good to get stuck in the middle of that fight._

_I would have to agree with you on that._ he thought as things slowly returned to normal around them. _At least she isn't a mousy thing like I was before your bloody lessons and what not, damn sadistic bastard._

Yugi had signed herself out of school, thankful that they stopped questioning her reasons after the first time Kaiba had told them that she was his assistant and drug her out the doors to go make sure his younger brother was safe after someone had tried to kidnap him three years before. By time she finished her usual walk back to the game shop, she had relaxed a little bit and was now trembling from the aftermath of her blow up. Never before had she let her self get so riled up another person, especially that annoying little slip of a girl Anzu!

She ignored the fact that sidewalks were dirty and not to be trusted to sit on but she sat to the left of the door, sitting Indian style with her bag still against her right side and the back of her head against the brick and face to the sky with her eyes shut. Yugi just felt so lethargic now, even the oddly comforting weight of the Millennium Puzzle against her stomach was doing nothing. Wincing she maneuvered the puzzle under the strap of her bag and slipped the neck strap over her head and held the thing in her right hand and examined it for a moment. "You are a nice object, well artifact, but I do not think you are meant to be worn by me." She told it and than used her left hand to lift the flap of her bag up and carefully placed it in before placing the flap back in place. With that done, she took a few deep breaths, letting the minutes tick pass, until she felt nearly ready to face her grandfather's questioning. Time was not on her side, because it seemed he was going to approach her first because she heard the little bell above the door ring. "It isn't good to be skipping class, Yugi." He stated in a gentle, yet scolding tone as she slowly opened her eyes and stared up at him.

"I just couldn't stick around, Grandpa, I nearly lost my temper." She admitted as her grandfather looked curious, offering her a hand up. Accepting the generous offer she got to her feet and started to brush off the back of her skirt. After that was done she followed him into the shop, where he sat on a stool behind the counter and she sat on the third seat from the bottom of the stairs that led to the living area.

Yugi found herself staring at the new poster that was by the door, which showed the Black Luster Solider on one side and ready to battle with a weapon in hand and Harpy's Pet Dragon on the other with mouth open in a roar and claws fully extended. "Looks like a real match, doesn't it?" Sugoroku asked as she blinked a few times and smiled.

"Probably." She muttered as he leaned on the counter, not even looking at her. "So, has anything happened here?" He than turned to her with a curious look.

"Put the sign up for a lunch break, a package came this morning for you and I am just itching to see what it is." He excitedly stated as she got to her feet and approached the store door, locking it and removing the 'Open' sign and replacing it with a clock that displayed a clock with the hands showing one-thirty and beneath that the words 'Out to Lunch.' Turning away from the door and making her way to the stairs, she suddenly felt very cold and very on edge. As her left foot hit the first stair her Shadow made an appearance, a protective yet possessive arm around her shoulders and he was growling something at the cold feeling that had been making her feel a bit threatened.

"I have a bad feeling about this, my friend." She muttered as he let her move up the stairs, eyes narrowed as he faded into the shadows again and waited for the intruder or the threat to actually make itself known.

With a sigh Yugi toed off her shoes and made her way across the living room, shoulders slumped forward as she had her thumbs hooked in the hem of her skirt since she had no pockets to shove her hands into. Sugoroku was sitting at the table with the seemingly innocent cardboard box that sat on the table. With a defeated sigh she covered the remaining ground and stood in front of the box, staring down at its label and frowning, yet again, because the return label read, 'Maximillion Pegasus, c/o Industrial Illusions, Tokyo' in a fancy English script and her name in the same script, 'Motou Yugi c/o Kame Game Shop, Domino City.' She glanced up to her grandfather and than glanced back down at the package. "This makes no sense, Grandpa, why would I be receiving a package from him?" she asked as he shrugged, but motioned with his hands for her to open the box.

"Why not see why, I'm sure everything will be explained." He prompted as she groaned and brought her right hand to the right side of the box, using her nails to lift the packaging tape up. After a few minutes of fighting the tape, she had managed to remove it from the box, dropping it on the floor for right now, and carefully opened the flaps of the box to show the carefully arranged contents. In the center was a gauntlet, the glove itself was a dark red fabric with the fingertips to the middle knuckle removed and gold circles against her first knuckles with a light metal ring that was at least an inch-and-a-half wide and three-quarters of an inch tall with an opening that was big enough for most hands, with two golden stars in the top left corner and in the lower right corner was a white letter envelope with only her first name printed on the front and a video below that in a simple gray cardboard case. "Looks like the glove that a few of those regional champions were modeling on the news this morning after they were invited to Duelist Kingdom." he stated as she moved her hands to rest her hands on the table top and just stared at it in confusion and annoyance.

Her Shadow was back again, but this time he was hovering around her and trying to make his displeasure known with his hand around her right bicep and the pressure of his grip betraying his emotions. Yugi brought her right hand up, as she stood straight up, and carefully picked up the envelope while her grandfather picked up the video. "What is going on?" she muttered to herself and her Shadow as her grandfather went off to the living room to pop the tape in. She sat the envelope on top of the gauntlet and turned to the living room as her Shadow seemed to growl in annoyance and his grip was now tight around her bicep, blunt fingernails digging into the cloth and her arm.

"Motou Yugi." She heard a voice call from the living room; the voice was not her grandfather's kind natured but a rather refined voice that was speaking in accented Japanese. A voice she had heard before, but no videotape can speak as if they were having a conversation unless…

"Impossible." She muttered as her Shadow glared at her, daring her to defy his decision. "Very friggin' freaky, but highly impossible!" she added as if trying to convince herself as her Shadow let her go, stiffening a bit as she frowned at his sudden change.

"Yugi-chin, come in here so we can talk face to face." The voice sang as she clenched her right hand into a fist at her side and grit her teeth in annoyance. Only one person could call her 'Yugi-chin' and this man had no right of being so familiar with her. "Yugi-chin, you are being very rude. I thought you had more manners than this."

"Grandpa?" she called out ignoring the voice and getting no response. Taking a few deep, calming breaths she entered the living room and her grandfather was not in his recliner, even if the remote was sitting where he probably would have been in his recliner, and the television was flickering like a bad horror movie.

"There you are!" the voice stated as an image of a smiling Maximillion Pegasus, from the shoulders up, appeared on the screen with a black background. "Thank you for joining us, Yugi-chin." He jovially stated as she twitched and pressed her left palm to her forehead and closed her eyes.

"The television is talking to me… maybe I fell asleep in class." Yugi stated out loud as Pegasus frowned at her reaction.

"If you are going to be difficult, than we will do this the hard way." He growled and suddenly she felt very cold and in a semi-familiar place, the weight was trying to press down on her but that power from her first time in this place was keeping her standing. She pulled her hand away from her head she blinked a few times and noticed that the place was nice and morbid, grave stones as far as the eye could see with the ground covered in brown grass and was rather rocky which went with the pitch black sky and the fluttering of white and blue light orbs lit the place up enough to see.

"Where…" she trailed off as Pegasus appeared, leaning against a grave marker with a smug smirk and not a hair out of place.

"Welcome to the Graveyard, in the ancient realm of shadows where the pharaohs and nobles of old used to formally duel and bring honor to themselves." He stated as she took a step back away from him, deciding that he was rather creepy and being alone in a place that he dragged her to would not good. "I am here to formally invite you to participate in the tournament I am holding— Duelist Kingdom. Purely of your own will, of course."

"Why are you inviting me? I have no claim to fame." Yugi protested waving her hands in front of her nervously, trying to discourage him, but all he did was laugh with one hand slapping his knee.

"So modest, Yugi-chin, I heard about your defeat of Kaiba Seto by drawing all the needed cards for Exodia." He told her as she frowned.

"I'm not interested, so many egos in one place can be dangerous plus I don't like being in competitions." She told him with a shrug as he frowned. "Cards and board games are nice and all, but I've never had a true reason to care for competitions."

"A true reason?" he echoed with a curious look, brining his left hand up and pressing his index finger to his lips. Snapping his fingers the grave he was leaning against glowed and a name appeared on it, the glowing of the kanji making it as clear as day to her.

Motou Sugoroku.

"What the hell is this?" Yugi hissed out with a glare at the man, ignoring the stirring of her Shadow in the background.

"I will be holding your grandfather's soul in my possession, if you do not enter Duelist Kingdom than he will die and it will be your fault." The man stated smugly as he pulled a card from his jacket and it showed her grandfather stuck in mid scream. "That leaves you with no choice, doesn't it?" he asked smugly as she felt ready to deck him, but found herself back in the living room and on her knees, staring at the prone form of her grandfather, wanting to scream about arrogant men.

* * *

**A/N:** Well, I should have probably put this in a few chapters back and S2teennovelist brought it to my attention. I will be using the japanese names:

Joey Wheeler -- Katsuya Jonouchi  
Tristan Taylor -- Honda Hiroto  
Tea Gardener -- Mazaki Anzu  
Weevil Underwood -- Insector Haga  
Mai Valentine -- Kujaku... oops, kept her name the same. Strike that one...  
-chin -- an affectionate form of -chan, used in this case to annoy Yugi and it sounds a bit better than Yugi-girl.

I think that is all. When the spirits gain names, I'll post them as well, but that is a few chapters off.

And, I know this is going slow but not much has been added to events, only a little more dept to the events themselves and I apologize if it is slow. It will pick up soon, since practically all the players in this large game have been introduced. A little warning, I changed the duels a bit and hte Shadow Duel will be... interesting. Thanks for your time!

**Rewrite Completed:** Saturday, April 5, 2008


	6. DIFFICULT DECISIONS

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* * *

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**3. DIFFICULT DECISIONS**

_Its all about power  
By taking control  
Breaking the will  
And raping the soul  
They suck us dry till there's nothing left  
My oh my, my oh my_

_What about the world today  
What about the place that we call home  
We' ve never been so many  
and we've never been so alone_

_You wash your hands and come out clean  
But fail to recognize the enemy's within_

_"We Are", _by Ana from the album "Spiderman-2"_

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_

Yugi sat beside her grandfather's hospital bed, her messenger bag leaning against the left leg while she was slumped back in the chair with her legs stretched in front of her and crossed at the ankles and the back of her head against the flat padding. At first glance she looked to be asleep, many of the nurses believed this when they came in to check on the old man before leaving as silently as they came, but Yugi was not asleep. By looking at dark rings beneath her eyes, it was obvious she had not slept well in the month since Pegasus stole her grandfather's soul through the television.

"What should I do, Grandpa?" she whispered, not opening her eyes as she brought her left hand up and pressed her palm to her forehead, fingers resting in her hair. "Mokuba and Kaiba seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet, going on a sudden business trip to a place no one knows for a reason no one knows." She continued before opening her eyes and staring at the white and gray ceiling tiles. An entire month of stress, from people at school acting like she was a fragile doll to having to call her aunt, Inui Haruko, to work in the shop while she was at school so that they would not fall behind with the funds to keep the shop stocked and the bills paid.

One of the few things she wished she did not have to worry about now.

With a sigh she braced her feet against the tiled floor and pushed her self up, sitting upright in the chair. After another moment she got to her feet, ignoring the stiffness in her shoulders and legs from how she was sitting, and picked up her bag. Slinging the bag over her right shoulder and rolling her head, causing her neck to crack a few painful times before she turned away from her grandfather and paused in the doorway, turning to look around the room one last time before heading home.

It looked like a typical hospital room, half the room done in cream with pastel green trimming with a sterilized white bed that made him look like he was on his deathbed. Yugi closed her eyes and bit her lip, berating herself for daring to make that morbid connection. The one window had three flowers pots on the sill while the right side table had a picture that looked to be from a family reunion. "Rest well, Grandpa." She whispered and left, trying to shake the icy feeling that had the hair on the back of her neck raised and caused goose bumps to rise on her arms. She watched the floor as she walked, having no urge to meet anyone's eyes until her mind finally settled.

After having passed six doors on either side of the hall, she took a right turn at the nurse's station where two women in pastel pink hospital gowns were answering phones or filing papers. Another turn had her in front of the two buttons for the elevators, which she reached out with her left hand and pressed the bottom button and patiently waited for 'ding' that signaled the elevator was there. Yugi let out another sigh and brought her right hand up to grip the strap of her messenger bag, her chest suddenly started to hurt as her thoughts seemed to churn about too much and were getting darker.

There was a soft 'ding' signaling the arrival of the elevator as the doors slid open and two old women stepped from the compartment. Blinking a few times Yugi shook her head and stepped in, pressed the button for the ground floor, and took up a position leaning against the back railing, closing her eyes again, as the door shut. "I'm just an average person, nothing special… all I did was beat Kaiba in a duel, I do that all the time!" she muttered out loud, suddenly realizing that the elevator was not moving down. "What now?" she whined and opened her eyes only to find herself standing in the dark room where she first met her Shadow, only this time things seemed to have gained a bit more… color and detail.

She could see the sand colored stone that made up the floor and the large, matching columns on either side of her with tops that were yellow and red stripped that met at a blue ring that was just above the hieroglyphs. The shadows were still present and they seemed a bit more amiable towards her and a bit curious, if the tendrils that were curiously coiling around her ankles were anything. "Beautiful." She whispered looking up at the columns, totally missing the hand that reached from the shadows and grabbed her left wrist.

Yugi shrieked, having zoned out while looking over the column to her right, spinning on her heel to glare at him with her left hand up and his fingers still curled around her wrist. His crimson eyes held concern as well as the usual calculating stare, but this gave her a moment to realize something about him. Ever since she first met him, or released she guessed considering he had came into existence with the completion of the Millennium Puzzle, he had appeared pitch black with only his eyes and hands distinguishable from the rest of him. Now, she could see the outline of clothes and other features, such as the fact that he wore no shirt and had a nicely defined chest, and a wrap around kilt that was held on by a wide belt and his feet were clad in sandals… but it was all still dark to her, especially his face. "Yes?" she asked as her fear and annoyance faded into something that she could only describe as neutral, nothing.

For a moment it felt like he was saying something, but she could not hear it and only felt him move his thumb in circles against the pulse of her wrist. This was odd behavior, but she would not make any threatening moves or pulled away, remembering full well what happened the first time. With a whispery laugh he brought her wrist to his lips and pressed his lips to the pads of her index, middle, and ring fingers so she could feel him smile. "I do wish you would speak your mind, I'm not in the mood to interpret and re-interpret your actions." She whispered as he let go of her wrist and she found herself in a room that was not the elevator, the lobby area, or even her own room!

The door shut behind her, but she still did not move. The four walls were white with simple silver vine accents, measuring at least four inches wide, placed inches from the dark blue ceiling, which had glow in the dark stars in the patterns of the constellations, and the floor was covered in grass green carpeting. There were no lights or windows in the room, so it should have been impossible to see anything, but she was not going to question things since there was worse. Looking to her right she seen two four foot wide, light-colored wooden bookcase with five shelves that took up the entire wall and the shelves were filled with books of varying genres— ranging from mythology and old archaeology texts she had gained from her grandfather to the trashy romance novels she stashed away from the public eye and read in private—as well as boxes of cards and board games. Steeling her nerves she turned to her right and took tentative steps so that she stood within arms length of the shelves, inspecting the titles a bit closer.

Her favorite books, right down to 'Captive Bride', which was buried in her sock drawer!

"Where the hell am I?" she asked herself and turned to look at the rest of the room. Across from the shelves was a desk made of the same colored wood with papers of doodles and started and never finished short stories she wrote during class with pens, pencils, erasers scattered about. Taking a deep breath she back up until her back was pressed to the door that had been closed behind her. "Creepy, creepy, creepy… why is everything happening now?" she muttered and accidentally banged the back of her head off of the door, cursing under her breath and reaching back with her right hand to rub the potential bump.

It seemed like she had spent an eternity in that room before the door opened and she tumbled out of it, back into reality and found herself laying on the covers of her own bed in her bedroom holding a that accursed letter in her left hand, staring blankly at the black letters on the page. Did she black out and get here on auto-pilot or… Squeezing her eyes shut, Yugi tried to repress the sudden fear that welled up in her. He had taken control of her body, he had taken control without her consent, and he had forced her to be a prisoner in her own soul! She bit her lip and forced her eyes open, attempting to shove that feeling into the back of her mind until she could deal with it or handle thinking about it. A knock at her bedroom door pulled her from her turbulent thoughts, causing her to stare at the door blankly for a moment. "Yugi?" she heard Haruko ask softly, obviously a bit worried.

"Yes?" she asked in an exhausted tone as the door opened to show a black haired woman wearing a simple pair of jeans and a dusty blue and white t-shirt. Inui Haruko, formerly Motou Haruko, was her mother's older sister and had been her mother figure after her parents had died in a horrible car crash in Egypt when she had been five. "Haruko-basan, when did life get so complicated?" she asked sitting up, swinging her legs over the edge as the older woman moved in and sat by her, a comforting hand resting on Yugi's left knee and a small smile curling her lips.

"This is what happens when you become an adult, Yugi-chan." Haruko replied as the teenager shook her head and dropped the letter in her hand into her lap and rested that hand over her aunt's hand, secretly thankful for the grounding of another soul. "What is troubling you?"

"This tournament." Yugi stated bitterly, picking the letter up in her right hand and offering it to her aunt before looking to her right so she did not have to see her expression.

"Dear Miss Motou Yugi; I am proud to invite you to participate in Duelist Kingdom. This invitation is only extended to the best-of-the-best in Japan's dueling community and circles and proves that you are sharp of mind. Enclosed would be the needed articles to prove this invitation, seeing anything on paper may and could be reproduced, and we cannot have that. You are to bring one article of identification— birth certificate, photo identification, etc.— as well as he dueling gauntlet and the two gold stars included in the package with this letter. There are also two release forms included with this letter, both of them should be read over carefully, signed, and handed in upon the boarding of the _S.S. ToonWorld. _Signed, Maximillion Pegasus, CEO and Owner of Industrial Illusions." The woman read out loud, before sitting down the letter on the bed. "The ship is set to leave tomorrow, boarding beginning at six in the morning and it leaves at nine sharp."

"I don't want to go." Yugi stated and turned to look her aunt in the eyes, noting the worry in her eyes. "I should not even being attending this since I am not a regional champion or such!" she hissed out and pulled her left hand from on top of her Aunt's and fisted it in her hair, loosening the bun in her hair, while her right hand was braced against the edge of the bed with her now slouching posture.

To Haruko, Yugi looked like she had been defeated more than giving in. There was something else going on here that her niece was not giving up, but she would not press the teen about it. "Have you weighed your options?" she asked, knowing that it was a redundant question.

"One major con outweighs everything." Yugi muttered flopping back, right hand still gripping the edge of the bed and her left still in her hair. "I'm going to go, but not of my own free will but because I have to." She concluded, pulling her hand from her hair and staring at her palm.

"It will work out, Yugi-chan, it always does." She told the troubled teenager and got to her feet. "You best pack and make sure everything is ready if you are heading out tomorrow morning, I'll see if Sadaharu can get his friends together and watch the shop while we are out." With that she crossed the room to stand in the door way for a moment.

"Thank you, Haruko-basan, thank you for everything." Yugi whispered as the woman smiled at the teen from over her shoulder and entered the living room, deliberately leaving the door open while Yugi sat up and began to mentally catalogue everything she needed for a three day hike in the wild. "I think my 'no' stick is still in the closet…" she mused out loud and got to her feet and started to rummage around her room.

By time it was six in the morning, the Saturday of the _S.S. ToonWorld_'s departure, Yugi had gotten a grand total of three hours sleep and had condensed everything she wanted to take with her into a larger, canvas messenger bag and only had to add four bottles of water to the collection. Her attire, in itself, was something she had received as a gag gift from Mokuba when he misinterpreted a comment from his brother and she figured it would work for first impressions and leaving the tournament. The top was soft black leather that zipped up the front with a black zipper with several inch wide buckled from around her neck to her waist with a dark blue lined purple jacket that went to her knees and black leather pants that covered black combat boots and a black leather belt with two pouches against her left hip. If this went over well she would have to see where Mokuba's bodyguard found this stuff. She stared at her reflection in the mirror and decided that she needed to do something with her hair and hairspray was out, unless she would be showering in a few days, and complex things were out.

"Yugi, come meet Sadaharu's friend!" Haruko shouted as Yugi sighed and decided on just pulling all but her blonde bangs back in a ponytail. She left the bathroom, trying to steel herself to face the day, and entered the living room where the Millennium Puzzle was sitting on the seat of her grandfather's recliner with her packed bag, including the four bottles of water, in front of it. With a sigh she crossed the distance in three steps and bent at the waist, picking up the strap with her right hand from where it was piled on top of the flap, and lifted the bag up easily, settling it on her right shoulder before bending at the knees and picking up the leather strap of the Puzzle before standing straight again. Bringing the puzzle up to eye level, she sighed and carefully brought her other hand up and pulled the two parts of the strap apart and slipped it over her head so it would rest just below her bust line, adjusting it so that a flat side was always against her stomach.

"I hope you bring me luck, because if I fail it will be a rough few years." She muttered and turned to the door of the living area to greet the group that would be watching the shop in her and Haruko's absence. Descending the stairs, she paused on the third step from the bottom and stared at the duo before her. Her cousin, who stood a bit taller than the brunette with oval glasses, had black hair and square glasses and was carrying a familiar green notebook under his right arm while the other had black hair held back by a bandana and a stare that reminded her of a snake.

"Yugi." He stated, tilting his head to the side with both eyebrows rose in question at her attire while the others were silent. "Interesting choice of attire."

"Figured it would be best to make a good first impression." She replied with a shrug as he shook his head at her statement. "Considering the characters on the news and what-not, its only for the arrival and the departure."

"Do you have everything?" Haruko asked as she entered the store floor from the storage room, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed under her bust and a devious smirk curling her painted red lips. She wore a black and gray-pinstripe suit, a black leather purse hanging over her right arm, with her hair pulled back in a bun, looking oddly professional for just taking Yugi to catch a yacht to a private island.

"I think so." Yugi replied as Inui started to show his friend around the shop. "Invitation in my jacket, ID in my wallet in my back pocket, cell phone in front pocket, deck at my left with extra cards in my bag, bottled water, dried fruit, four peanut butter sandwiches, a few changes of clothes, deodorant, bug repellant, a towel…"

"The essentials, very good." The older woman stated and pushed away from the door frame as Yugi started to cross the store floor, a few steps ahead of her aunt.

"There are things in the fridge, don't blow up the kitchen, and the guest bedroom is still clean." Yugi told them as she paused at the door, turning her head so that the two boys could see her devious smirk. "Do clean up after yourselves, I would rather not have to deal with _unknown_ stains." She added in an innocent tone and ducked out the door as both boys were sputtering and Haruko was laughing.

"Have fun." The older woman called out as the door shut, leaving the two blushing.

The twenty-minute drive was silent, but when they arrived there was a crowd to the left of the gangplank that led to the main deck of the large yacht. Haruko stood by the car with her hands in her pockets while and Yugi stood with her arms crossed behind her head, both taking everything before them in. The luxury yacht was white with large, blue block lettering on the side reading 'S.S. ToonWorld' with a caricature version of the Blue Eyes White Dragon by it, looking devious. In the center of the ship, rising above the main deck, was a two-story building that went practically the entire length of the ship, and probably house the navigation and steering as well as the crew. A metal mast rose from the front part of that building with a smoke stack at the back of the building. "Just don't think about the _Titanic_ or the movie _The Poseidon Adventure_." Haruko stated cheerfully as Yugi hunched over a bit and glared at her.

"I so hope all your paint runs together." Yugi grumbled as she looked over the crowds of people. She heard, rather than seen, Anzu soaking up the attention from the media with a few of the more well known regional champions while other groups of people meandered around and talked with others that had been invited but did not have a large following like the others.

"No _Howl's Moving Castle_ references, you know better." Her aunt chided as Yugi snorted and pushed herself away from the car and lowered her arms so she could shove her hands into her pockets, fondly remembering what happened the last time that threat had been used. Unfortunately they never did figure out why her one mural suddenly looked like a tie-dye shirt gone wrong, but chalked it up to bad paint and the hot, summer day she had completed it. "Are you sure you'll be fine going through that rabid pack of wolves yourself?"

"If not, I can use the puzzle as a weapon and my bony elbows." Yugi replied with a smile as she took a few steps forward. "Take it easy, Haruko-basan, and don't work too hard." Was Yugi's parting comment while her aunt stayed leaning against her car, looking a bit concerned about her niece's health among the obvious fanatics in the area.

"Same to you, Yugi-chan, same to you." The dark haired woman muttered as Yugi weaved through the groups with her head held high.

The two guards that manned the checkpoint at the bottom of the gangplank looked bored, considering one was messing around with a piece of string and the other was counting the people around. She pulled out her papers and stepped up for them to inspect, watching as three familiar boys used the distraction to sneak up to a wooden crate with an open top. One of the guards went to look behind him, she made a split second decision and pretended to drop one of the golden stars and asked if they could help her find it, of course she made sure to look frantic and than a bit nervous as they were crouched down or on their knees in search. The three boys froze and stared as she glanced at them and made a motion with her left hand, covering the motion by running her hand through her hair. They were all safely inside when she found the star, made sure to blush in embarrassment as she shoved them into her right pocket while apologizing, and than profusely thanked them for their help before rushing up the gangplank, trying to figure out why she did that.

The main deck was relatively empty, but Yugi was quick to make her way to where the crate had been sat down at the back of the ship. She watched as another crate was lowered into the lower level of the ship, but they were covered, so that meant this one had important things in it. She crossed her arms above the Millennium Puzzle and waited for the three teens, the brunette and blonde clad in the blue and white boys uniform of Domino High while Ryou wore a white shirt and a pair of jeans, to realize she was eavesdropping on the conversation they were having. It did not help that the three were standing in front of the crate and arguing. "You three are either brave or very moronic, either way…" Yugi trailed off as they all spun to stare at her. "What the hell are you thinking? Those men are not rent-a-cops!"

"We came to cheer on Anzu." Hiroto stated as Ryou shifted his weight from one foot to the other, obviously disagreeing with that but not saying anything out loud, yet. She glanced at the blonde haired Katsuya Jonouchi, who was clenching his hands into fists and glaring at her.

"I came here for my own reasons." He snapped as Yugi rolled her eyes and moved her arms so that her hands were on her hips.

"That's nice, but I can be accused of a good bit if you are caught. Why risk all of this? I doubt you are here to cheer that screeching bat on, since you would be hanging around her if she'd give you a time of day." She drawled out as Jonouchi flinched at the statement. "What do you hope to accomplish by being a stowaway on your way to Duelist Kingdom?"

"Why should I tell a cold bitch like you?" he snapped as Yugi slipped her hands into her pockets and stalked forward, eyes narrowed as the blonde took a step back. Obviously her little blow up the month before had left a good impression on him about how dangerous it was to nearly piss her off, which may work in her favor.

"Because, I stand between you and Duelist Kingdom. Tell me what your reason is and I will drop the issue." She stated in a hard tone and stopped when she was standing toe-to-toe with him, one corner of the puzzle digging into his stomach and her eyes dark and cold as she stared him down. He let his shoulders slump and brought his right hand up to palm his face.

"I want to win for my sister." He muttered as she tilted her head to the side. "My family ain't well off and I need to win the Duelist Kingdom tournament to pay for her surgery." He added on, waiting for her to laugh or mock him for that. He did not hear anything, so he pulled his hand from his face and noted that she was frowning.

"At least you have a good reason, in comparison to these greedy bastards." She told him and pulled her right hand from her pocket and bringing it up to eye level, showing one gold star between her middle and index fingers. "You'll need this if you are going to compete." He stared at her like she had gained a second head while Hiroto's eyes were wide and Ryou had arched an eyebrow in surprise.

"I can't." he stated as she pulled her left hand from her pocket and grabbed his right wrist, turning his hand over so that the palm was up and dropped the star into his hand.

"Bullshit, if you want to win you have to have at least one star to start with. How you get a gauntlet is none of my concern, but I want to face you in the semi-finals and if you are not there I will make your life a living hell. Understand?" she asked as he nodded, paling a bit as she let go of his wrist and watched her turn on her heel and walk away. "Don't put much stock in Mazaki, she'll weigh you down."

"That is not true!" Hiroto shouted as Yugi snorted and kept on walking away.

"Why would she do that?" Jonouchi asked as Ryou decided to answer before the brunette could cause troubles.

"No one really knows Motou-san, it seems." He replied and started off on the same way she did, the other two following since they still had a chance to hide before all the places were taken up by the other duelist.

* * *

**A/N: **I cannot describe ships, don't know enough about the technical terms… go to luxury yachts .net and it is the first one on the list. I apologize. Yes, the Tennis no Oujisama reference was intended, Inui will be making cameos since I wanted Yugi to have a bit more of a family and he seemed like a good choice not to mention she needs some place to visit when she doesn't want to face her few friend in Domino. I also apologize if it seems like I am going oo slow, but it will pick up soon... I just wanted to establish a few things in the plot and about the characters.

**Rewrite Completed: **Saturday, April 12, 2008


	7. WELCOME TO DUELIST KINGDOM

**4. WELCOME TO DUELIST KINGDOM**

_Welcome all my honored guests  
__To the ultimate duel with the best of the best  
__At my invitation you've come to compete  
__For the honor of suffering the final defeat__  
__  
Isn't it grand what I managed to do  
__By kidnapping those closest to you  
__I've taken their souls to lay on the line  
__In a winner take all duel for all time__  
__  
All your cunning strategies  
__All the tricks you try  
__Look like merely child's play  
__To my Millennium Eye_

_Face Up, Face Down,_ from the album "Yu-Gi-Oh!: Music to Duel By"

* * *

The trip to Pegasus's private island had taken all day and well into the morning to arrive, Yugi knew this because she had taken over a table in the corner of the dining hall since the staterooms had been taken over by the well-known Regional Champions and others were prowling around for easy prey to bully. A boy with glasses and a bug-like look had tried to target her, he walked away with a chip on his shoulder because she ignored him and was talking loudly to anyone that would pay attention. That had been two hours before the ship docked and everyone started to disembark to hear Pegasus's opening speech.

Going with the flow of the crowd, which was gravitating towards and down the gangplank that had been lowered minutes before, she found herself on a cobblestone ground in a mock peasant village with a large stage that was raised in the center and guarded by the same black suited guards from Domino City. She looked around and noted that many groups had formed, including Anzu's as the three boys gravitated towards her. At that, Yugi rolled her eyes and shook her head, but it was not any skin off her teeth because they were not her friends. "Such rabble." She heard a rather sultry voice state from behind her, prompting the tri-colored haired teen to turn around and face a blonde woman that was a few inches taller than her with long blonde hair and lavender colored eyes. Her attire raised a few eyebrows since she basically flaunted her well trimmed body in an open lilac coat that only went to her waist with a matching miniskirt that was held around her hips with a wide black leather belt that had a silver belt buckle and a pouch from her cards, her chest was clad in a strapless white corset that laced up the front and she wore white sneakers, which was practical. The only thing that made Yugi twitch was the gauntlet on her left hand and the two glittering gold stars, she still had reservations about wearing the cursed thing since what happened to her Grandpa and was attempting to put it off as long as possible.

"Is that so?" Yugi asked, keeping her tone more curious than annoyed in hopes of not making any more enemies, tilting her head to the side with her hands in her pants pockets. It would be bad due to the fact that it looked like they would be set loose on the island with no supervision of any sort.

"Look around, most here are high school rejects that know this brings them popularity and others that have an ego that is larger than them." She continued to say as a few glared at her, only she returned it and they looked away. "Most settle into the limelight well and milk it for all its worth, but if I have to hear…" she trailed off gritting her teeth as Yugi turned to face her fully this time with a grin.

"What makes you different from them?" she asked as the blonde frowned at the question. "I mean, you are a regional champion and you must be pretty high up since the press at the Domino City docks were following you around like lost puppies with flashbulb eyes." Her frown disappeared as she laughed, putting her hands on her hips and throwing back her head and drawing some attention from those around them.

"I'm the first female regional champion and one of the few females here at this tournament, besides yourself and maybe two others obviously." She added with a smirk. "You don't look half bad yourself." This time it was Yugi who frowned and stared the other down.

"Sorry, I don't swing that way, but thanks for the compliment." Yugi replied dryly as the blonde looked amused.

"You're not half bad, but let's see if you have what it takes." The blonde mused and stuck her left hand out. "I'm Mai Valentine, best female duelist around." Yugi pulled her right hand from her pocket and briefly shook Mai's hand, making sure she went for a medium strength in grip as the blonde matched. As they released hands, Yugi hooking her thumb into a belt loop while Mai rested her hand on her own hip; Yugi took the initiative to begin the formal introductions.

"I am Motou Yugi, your rival for such title." She stated with a slight bow. "I doubt the others will prove to be much of a challenge next to you, Valentine-san." Her eyes narrowed a bit, giving Yugi another once over as if evaluating the weight of that statement and if she was joking or not.

"You better, if would be such a loss for women to lose to one of these moronic little boys." She stated and glared at the bug boy that had been annoying Yugi on the ship, both watched in amusement as he paled and scampered away from them.

"Attention!" a voice shouted as all attention turned to the platform again, only a brown haired man wearing dark sunglasses in a black suit stood. He must have been the head of Pegasus's security detail, since he wore the glasses and the others seemed to snap to attention when he raised his voice to gain the attention of the duelist. "Mr. Pegasus is here to make the opening speech, so be respectful and courteous to him." In her mind, Yugi had added 'or else' to that statement because it seemed like the man would be the one to point at someone that was talking in the middle of the speech and tell them to attack like a well trained police dog.

After everyone fell silent a silver haired man in a garish suit, which was more blinding than when she had seen him on the tape, and everyone was looking up at him. Yugi screwed her eyes shut as a sudden image of a King, Pharaoh, or God addressing the lower classes, peasants, or his cult following and that resulted in the first sound of snickering from her Shadow and the first mental growl from her. Opening her eyes, and trying to ignore the snickering in her mind, she focused on Pegasus, who was smiling benignly down at them.

"Welcome all of my honored guests— especially the Regional Champions— to the first large scale dueling tournament with only the best of the best." He stated jovially arms spread in welcoming as the duelists all clapped or looking smug about this opening statement. "It will be a grueling test of your strategy skills, showing everyone just who has the mind to truly fear, but also to crown one of you the King of Games." Many were cheering at this point, but Yugi noted that Mai had crossed her arms and looked skeptical and felt her respect for the blonde go up at least one notch. Yugi's own opinion of the beginning of Pegasus's speech was that he was too dramatic and the technical title that he was giving away should have been 'King of _the Duel Monsters_ Game' since there was obviously no other type of games around here.

She blinked a few times and brought her left hand up to cover her mouth, hiding the fact that she was grinning from those around her. The sudden thought that had popped into her head, despite the grumbling of confusion, was watching the present duelists trying to organize soccer teams for a round-robin tournament. At this point she had bowed her head and her shoulders were shaking, causing Mai to give her a weird look and others to inch away.

"The only catch is you will have to defeat myself to gain that prestigious title, and only the overall winner of the tournament will have that right." Pegasus continued on as he bent his right arm and placed his right hand flat against the center of his chest, dropping his left arm so that his hand rested against the railing of the platform. His one visible eye roaming over the crowd of excited teenagers, keeping his smile. "As you all know, each duelist has received a special dueling gauntlet and will start out with two star chips. Your goal is to reach ten star chips and this can be achieved by wagering a number of star chips on duels, in a true game of winner take all. Once a duelist has ten chips, they will be eligible to enter my castle and compete in the semi-finals of this tournament." He paused here as many were chattering amongst themselves and scouting out the competition, trying to find the weakest duelers to begin with.

"Curse you, Darwin, and your ever present theories." Yugi muttered to herself, after she stopped snickering and had stood straight up, both hands now gripping the strap of her messenger bag. Mai snorted to herself about that comment, secretly agreeing. The older blonde was uneasy with the set-up, since that meant the testosterone would get suffocating and there would be people resorting to physical violence instead of dueling to achieve their means.

"Also, just to make things very interesting, the arenas on this island have had several new rules added in. So, so be careful where you decide to duel and whom you challenge because these rules may just cause you some new troubles." He warned, bringing his right hand up and waving it with a laugh. "Since you all have had a day to prepare yourselves, let the tournament… BEGIN!" he declared as everyone cheered and started to set off to find the arenas that had been set up.

"I have a really bad feeling about this." Yugi muttered as she made her way towards the closet village exit, which showed a green meadow and a large arena in the distance and missed Mai's challenging smirk as she went the opposite way, towards the exit at the far side of the village that had access to the beginnings of a forest.

Yugi found it rather amusing how quickly twenty or so people could disperse. It took her five minutes to reach the dueling arena, noting that it seemed like no one was around. She poked around for a moment and noted that it was a big, bulky structure with two tall pedestals with a control panel on both and the field between the two pedestals was marked off to show the places where the cards would appear in holographic form. "All this for a card game?" she muttered to herself as her Shadow snorted and appeared before her, leaning against the side of the one pedestal with his arms crossed over his chest. She still could not see his face, but she could now tell he had a dark tan, and that his legs were strong and his fingers were slender, wrists and biceps sporting inch wide gold bracelets and cuffs with another around his throat.

If it were not for her control and pride, she would have swooned like in the cheesy romance novels. Steeling herself against his appeal, she glanced around the area and than carefully let her bag drop to the ground. Rubbing her right shoulder with her left hand, she closed her eyes and tilted her head to the left, and waiting for the knot to pass. "No bag weighting that much should be carried that long." She muttered, jumping a bit when she felt another hand mirroring her own. Cracking her eyes open she seen that her Shadow was not where he had first appeared. She let her eyes open all the way and she turned her head to the right and seen a tanned hand covering hers.

He may have been a spirit, transparent and all, but how could she feel his touch? His other hand was on the left side of her throat and gently pushed her neck so that she was looking forward and he had moved closer, his hand moving her hair over her left shoulder, so he could press a reassuring kiss to the nape of her neck. The comfortable moment was broken by a high-pitched laugh that made her twitch and her Shadow growl in annoyance before he faded away. "I challenge you to a duel, you ignorant novice!" the familiar yet grating, nasally voice declared as she turned her head to the left, wincing as her neck cracked, and seen a short boy with sea-green hair in a bowl cut wearing large, round glasses—the frames were yellow with the bridge rather wide and forming the pinchers of an insect. She blinked a few times and turned to face him.

"I take it you are one of those infamous Regional Champions." Yugi lazily replied as he growled at her calm demeanor and the nature of her statement, not noticing that she was looking him over with a calculating eye. He wore a white dress shirt with a red bow tie and an open, bright green jacket and matching pants. On his back was a simple backpack, but other than that there was nothing threatening about the boy other than his higher-than-normal voice.

"I am Insector Haga, the best of the Regional Champions. Have you been living under a rock?" he arrogantly asked, puffing his chest up as she pulled her hands from her neck and bent down to pick up her bag. "Are you chickening out already?" he cackled as she snorted and slung her bag over her right shoulder, and rested her left hand on the Millennium Puzzle. She turned around, showing her his back, and headed towards the dueling pedestal closest to them.

"Hardly, Haga." She replied throwing him a smirk over her shoulder, pausing in front of the ladder. "Any questions before we begin?"

"What's your name, novice, so I can proudly add you to my list of conquests?" he asked as Yugi twitched.

_That sounded so wrong._ She thought as her Shadow growled, but she was not in the mood to debate if it was due to the possible perverse nature of the comment or at losing to an arrogant fool like the boy before them. "Motou Yugi." She simply stated and started to climb the ladder as the boy was frozen to his spot for a moment, than he laughed.

"You're the one that beat Kaiba?" he laughed, obviously not believing that she had beat him, and all she did was roll her eyes and wait for him to get to his pedestal. In that time, and to ignore his uproarious laughter, she had sat her bag down and crouched down in front of it. By time he called out that he was ready to begin the betting, she had pulled out the dueling gauntlet she had stashed in her bag and slipped it on her right hand before reaching her now covered hand into her pants pocket and pulling out the lone star she had. Transferring that to her left hand, she

"How about this, Haga, if you win I give you the star and my deck and if I win I take both star chips?" she asked as the boy looked positively gleeful at that, throwing his two star chips into the wager basket at his left while Yugi sat one star chip and pulled out her secondary deck, to take the place of her primary deck in the basket at her left.

"Accepted!" he shouted with a devious grin that did not set Yugi's nerves easy. Obviously he knew some of the new rules and that may not bode well for her. "Let's duel!" he declared as she pulled her deck from the first pouch at her left hip and started to shuffle it, secretly asking for a good bit of luck and that the Heart of the Cards was on her side this time.

After shuffling her cards a number of times, she drew the top seven cards and fanned them out in her left hand as Haga did the same. Since he made the challenge she could go first, so she laid down Mammoth Graveyard in defense position and face down as her opponent kept his creepy smirk. "Are you going to announce what you did?" he asked as she blinked a few times.

"Why would I? You can see the move I made and I doubt I can attack anything just yet." She pointed out as he looked vaguely annoyed, but the smirk never fell. For some odd reason she had the feeling that she would be in for a ridiculously long haul, what else could possibly go wrong?

"Hey look who's dueling!" a voice screeched and Yugi felt a twitch developing at the corner of her left eye. Why was she cursed to always run into those idiots?

"I play Killer Needle in attack mode, attack Yugi's face down card!" Weevil declared loudly, and rather dramatically, with a cackle. She frowned as the Killer Needle took out her face down card, forcing it to flip and the Mammoth Graveyard to appear in it's skeleton glory to be skewered.

"Eh?" she got out, standing straight up with her right hand resting on the edge of the control console. She tilted her head to the side with a weird look on her face, now drumming her fingers as many thoughts ran through her mind about what had just happened and what caused it.

"That is one of the new rules, the field power bonus." Haga proudly told her with his nose in the air. "Each arena that Pegasus put on the island is in a different area of the island, a different setting. Look at our own, it is split into a wasteland and forest… boosting any card that could thrive in those sections."

"Yeah, yeah. Causing both the attack and defense to increase by a certain amount, I get it." Yugi drawled out and dismissed the rest of his explanation with a wave of the hand, knowing it would piss him off. "But if that is the case, going off of what you said about our arena, than your Killer Needle would be history as well since my Mammoth Graveyard would have received the same power boost, seeing it thrives in wastelands." She pointed out as his card imploded, making his eyes bug out much like his name. "Zombies have to be useful for something other than being creepy cannibals or the basis for B-rate movies." She arched an eyebrow when he started to grit his teeth and looked ready to throw a tantrum as he leaned over the console taking in deep breaths in order to calm down.

"No matter, I doubt you know the rest of them." Haga stated as he lifted his head and gave a rather creepy laugh, making Yugi roll her eyes. This boy was such a drama queen! With a sigh she drew a card and looked over her hand, keeping a straight poker face as she laid one card down in defense mode and than placed a second card, this one in the second row, denoting that it was a magic or trap card.

"I'm done, go ahead bug-boy." She drawled out as he growled at her.

"My name is not bug-boy!" he shouted, flailing his arms around like he was trying to fly.

"Whatever. Just make a move already." Yugi added in an exasperated tone as he finally drew a card, snickering this time.

"I play Hercules Beetle is attack mode." He declared loudly as the insect appeared, it's original stats being 1500 attack and 2000 defense but with the field bonus it was changed to 1700 attack and 2200 defense, and was ready for some action. "Attack her face down card!" he bellowed as the beetle did so, only to have his beetle get pushed back and 250 points of damage inflicted. The card on the field disappeared and a block stone soldier appeared with a sword before him, arms crossed in front of itself in defense, the Giant Solider of Stone with an attack of 1300 and defense of 2000 only with the bonus the attack was 1500 and the defense 2200.

"Nice try, but with that lovely field bonus my Soldier has an extra two hundred points to both his attack and defense giving me first blood in this duel." She stated with a nod of her head and drawing her own card while her opponent bit his lip and glared. So he was down to 4750 of the original 5000 life points, things may change, but Yugi seriously hoped not. Against her better judgment she played the Gemini Elf, with an attack of 1900 and defense of 900, face up and in attack mode. "Gemini Elf attacks your Hercules Beetle head on." She added on as the two elves darted forward, one attacking and than the other, and the insect fragmented with another 200 points being removed from Haga's life points, bringing him down to an 4550.

Haga was not happy with this duel; it was not supposed to be this way! This ignorant novice was supposed to be shaking in her shoes and the duel should have been in his favor, not her. He grit his teeth and drew a card, looked over his hand for a moment, and than smirked as a plan formed in his head. "I play Basic Insect in attack mode." He declared slapping the card down as a large, green mantis appeared on the field.

"I activate my trap card, Trap Hole." Yugi added in a cheerful tone as she flipped the magic card over. Suddenly a black hole appeared beneath the insect and it dropped through, clearing the field for her, as he looked a bit frantic now as his turn ended. She drew a card and looked her own cards over, betraying no emotion on her face while he waited expectantly. "I place one card in defense mode, and two magic ones down. Gemini Elf, attack." She added as Haga let out a shout of shock as the two elves attacked him directly, alternating their attacks like they had before. His life points dropped to 2650, while Yugi still had all of her points and he was not happy with this.

"Hey look! A duel started!" someone shouted from the forest part of the field. Haga scowled as he drew a card, than he made a show of thinking while a small audience gathered at the base of the arena. Yugi took a moment to look over those present and seen that Anzu and her friends were chief among the small group, the brunette was looking smug while Jonouchi was frowning.

"I play one card in defense mode and place two magic cards down." Haga stated in distaste as Yugi drew a card, at this point ignoring the bickering of two females in the audience.

"I play Magical Space Typhoon and destroy your first magic card." Yugi stated as the card automatically went to the card graveyard. "I also play a monster in defense mode." Haga drew his card and grinned before placing the card down and ended his turn.

The next two turns were uneventful, since Yugi was not willing to risk anything on activating Weevil's only other trap card and Weevil had no monsters that could counter the Gemini Elf or destroy her Giant Soldier of Stone and he was not risking her only face down card. The only excitement was Yugi managing to destroy the one trap card Haga had. It was on his third turn that he drew a card he needed, he announced it to everyone by laughing manically and causing whispers in the small audience that he had broken open the duel this time. "I switch my face down card to be face up and in attack mode!" he cackled, showing that it was the Larvae Month, with an attack of 500 and defense of 400 only the bonus put it at 700 and 600 respectively. "Now I equip it with my Cocoon of Evolution." He added as the card his the top of the pedestal and a cocoon surrounded the insect. "With the bonus that puts its defense at an even 2400, in five turns my Larvae will emerge as the Ultimate Great Moth. I challenge you, Motou, to destroy my cocoon."

Repressing her urge to growl in annoyance, Yugi drew a card and stared at it for a moment. "I play Gaia, the Fierce Knight in attack mode." She stated placing the card down in her next to last slot on the top of row of the console, watching as a knight in blue armor on a purple horse carrying a lance appeared, his attack being 2300 and defense 2100. "I also equip him with the Black Pendent." She added and placed that magic card down as a black amulet appeared around the knight's neck, taking his attack points up to 2800. "Attack his cocoon." She added as the knight charged at the cocoon, only to be repelled and 300 points damage inflicted on her own, bringing her down to 4700.

"Nice try, but I doubt that will work." Haga stated with a laugh, as if he had made a joke.

"Obviously." She dryly replied and ended her turn as he drew a card and ended his turn as well, confident that she would not be able to break the cocoon that held the pride and joy of his deck. He would win this, so no need to add more to the field so she could destroy them and his life points.

At the end of three turns, Yugi had managed to put together a means of ending the duel. At this point had laid down three magic cards and the Curse of Dragon, as her final monster summoning, and as the fourth turn began she drew the one she was hoping would turn up. "I play the Burning Land card." She stated and sat that magic card down as Haga paled drastically.

"What?" he shrieked as she rubbed her ears, his voice had cracked on that and her eardrums were not happy even with the distance she was away from him. The Curse of Dragon rose in the air a bit, inhaled, and than exhaled more fire than expected at the cocoon and watched as a small forest fire consumed it. "My moth!" he shouted as Yugi sighed, watching as the second part of the card took effect— the loss of 500 life points to both sides, bringing Haga to 2150 and Yugi's to 4200.

"Now, Gaia the Fierce Knight attack the cocoon." She stated as the knight charged at the cocoon again, only this time shattering it. With that done, she ended her turn he suddenly looked smug, even as the cocoon broke open to show the Ultimate Great Month, only it was weaker due to its full evolution being interrupted, with an attack of 2600 and defense of 2500.

"Joy." She muttered as he cackled.

"Ultimate Great Moth, attack her Gemini Elf." He stated happily as the elves were taken out, inflicting 700 points of damage and bringing her life points to 3500. Ending his turn and looking smug still, Yugi drew a card and shrugged.

"I play Raigeki." She told him as his jaw dropped when the lighting came down and sent his Ultimate Great Moth to the graveyard. "Now attack him directly, Curse of Dragon." She stated as Haga shielded his face from the bright attack, his life points going down to 150. "Gaia the Fierce Knight, finish his life points off."

Everyone was shocked into silence as Yugi gathered her cards up and Haga was staring down at his cards and console with a broken look. "How? How could I have lost to _you_?" he snarled as she slipped her deck back into the first pouch on her belt and easily collected the two stars that had been transferred to her own basket and picked up her secondary deck and slipped it back into place in the second pouch on her belt.

"She beat Haga." One boy stated in shock as she picked her bag up and slung it over her shoulder, proceeding to climb down the ladder as if she did not hear them.

"Good luck!" Yugi told them all and walked away from the arena and the audience while Haga was coming to terms with his loss. "Three down, seven to go… this vacation really bites."

* * *

**A/N: **I watched the duel while writing this and the field bonus's made no sense, since it seemed to go up random amounts, so I standardized that and the game will be played about the same as the card game with only a few of Pegasus's modified rules kept. Also, I tried to make it all sound and I hope it is. Instead of _Eternal _Duelist's 8000 life points I am using 5000 life points, since the duels would be notoriously one-sided and I found that out with the changes I made. Yugi's deck changed a tiny bit, but that is only based off of the number duels I have had and the number of times these cards had appeared.

Do comment on the duel, this is more of a test to how I should write these scenes cause I have no idea.

On that note, I'd like to make a notation I forgot in the previous chapters... after three, I think, or around there. S2teennovelist has taken on the job of reading my chapters before hand and pointing out issues I have in my writing, since I usually do not get a chance to reread them until I need to check on something.

**Rewrite Completed: **Thursday, April 17, 2008


	8. NIGHTS AND SHADOWS

**5. NIGHTS AND SHADOWS**

_I'm gonna make you bend and break  
Say a prayer, but let the good times roll  
In case God doesn't show (let the good times roll, let the good times roll)  
I want these words to make things right  
But it's the wrongs that makes the words come to life  
"Who does he think he is"  
If that's the worst you've got better put your fingers back to the keys_

_Been looking forward to the future  
But my eyesight is going bad.  
And this crystal ball.  
Is always cloudy except for (except for)  
When you look into the past. (look into the past)_

_Thanks for the Memories_, by Fall Out Boy

* * *

After changing from her leather attire and into a simple pair of jeans with torn knees, a pair of worn brown sandals, and a red tank top with a scoop neck that black cat head on the front, covered by the Millennium Puzzle, with her sweatshirt tied around her waist she had set out to find other duelists. Before she knew it, a majority of the afternoon had passed and she had been challenged in three separate duels, that she had won—adding five star chips to her first three and narrowing the gap to only two chips. The only notable duel, of the three, had been against Mako Tsunami and his water based deck and that was only because she was not used to dealing with people that used themed decks because her own was a mix of all types of monsters.

At the moment she was walking through the forest, readjusting her messenger bag so that it sat against the back of her right thigh and over her sweatshirt, hoping to find a place to bed down for the night since Pegasus obviously intended for everyone to rough it if they did not get the chips on the first day. "Get back here, you damned midget of a thief!" Yugi heard the familiar voice of Honda Hiroto shout, which caused her to groan and slap her left hand to her forehead. Why did it seem like they were drawn to always find her? Which deity did she anger to get such a curse?

"Yu-u-u-gi!" a familiar voice shouted as she was than tackled by a kid that came running from behind her. She hissed in pain as her palms met the ground, hard, as did her chest. She pushed her upper body up a bit as the boy scrambled off of the back of her legs and gave a nervous laugh. "Sorry." He stated as she slowly got to her knees first and than her feet.

"Its no issue, at least you didn't decide to tackle me into a pool like before." Yugi replied, carefully brushing the dirty off of her hands before brushing it off of her clothes. She than turned to face the boy and brought her right hand to cover her mouth, repressing her sudden urge to laugh out loud. He was wearing a purple ski cap with the lower half of his face covered by a light blue handkerchief wearing blue jeans and a long sleeve shirt that had orange sleeves with two white stripes below and above his elbow and the main part of the shirt was red. "Mokuba, what in the world are you wearing?"

Mokuba's eyes narrowed a bit as he pulled his ski cap off to show spiky, shoulder length black hair and than pulled the handkerchief off to show that he was frowning at her comment. "I did not have a choice in the matter, it wasn't like Pegasus was going to have any decent clothes. Look how he dresses!" he protested, nearly whining as she crossed her arms and rested her weight on her left foot as he paled.

"Pegasus? Mokuba, what is going on?" she asked, noting that he suddenly looked rather nervous. "First your brother all but drops from the face of the planet and than you mysteriously show up in the middle of a forest on a private island owned by a rival to Kaiba Corp." She stated as Mokuba's eyes widened.

"Aniki is in trouble?" he asked as Yugi suddenly felt like there was something else going on behind the scenes.

"Come out, you midget!" she heard Jonouchi shout in anger as he and Hiroto burst through the trees a few feet from them, causing Mokuba to throw the two articles of clothing into the brush and hide behind Yugi, who tugged at the simple knot that her sleeves had made against her navel. The younger boy pulled it away and quickly slipped it on, but she could feel him digging through her bag for something. Filing a few questions away in the back of her mind, she promised to not let Mokuba get off without a small interrogation since it would be best to have an idea of what may happen in the course of the next few days.

"Motou, where is the little punk that stole my deck and star chips?" Anzu snapped out as she stormed into view with an amused Ryou sauntering after her, looking happy with present the situation. The brunette girl had not dressed in a way that would have suited her, Yugi noted with a shiver, because she wore a blue mini-skirt that was barely considered a skirt, since it was so short, with a cream long sleeve shirt under a pink knitted vest with a large, gaudy pink purse over her left shoulder.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Yugi stated, managing to pull off a confused look. "I was just talking with my friend here, didn't realize he was here as well." She stated as that set the glaring boys off balance and Ryou was now biting his lip to keep from laughing while Anzu growled and stormed up to Yugi.

"I know he was working for you! You are jealous of _my_ accomplishments!" she shouted, storming past Jonouchi and Hiroto, and stopped in front of Yugi where she slapped the tri-color haired teen. Her head did not move, even when she noted the brunette girl looked rather smug about something. This entire event changed the atmosphere of the meeting, causing Ryou's amusement to quickly fade into worry while the other three were dead silent and staring in wide-eyed shock.

"Yugi?" Mokuba asked in surprise, but Yugi was silent. That was why no one seen her right hand balling into a fist, but they did notice it when Yugi suddenly brought her hand up and landed a right hit across Anzu's face. The strength of that hit took the brunette to the ground where she stared at the other in shock.

"I told you before, I am through being patient with you." Yugi stated coldly as she glared down at the trembling, arrogant girl. "Mokuba, do you have her things?"

"Unfortunately." The boy muttered as he moved to stand by Yugi, quickly pulling the deck and star chips from his pocket and tossed them on the ground in front of a glaring Anzu. "I would have given them back if you didn't sic your guard dogs on me, I just wanted a star chip." He muttered and moved a bit closer to Yugi, knowing she would protect him if needed.

"They are my chips and I help no one!" she shrieked gathering everything up quickly, checking everything twice, but not realizing what she had just told everyone. Jonouchi was a bit stiff, looking like he was trying to ignore what she had said and meant while Hiroto just shrugged it off but the most interesting reaction came from Ryou.

He was standing a small distance away from them and was shaking his head. This he and his Yami had expected, since the girl showed no interest but in herself, and if the others were too blind to see that than it was their fault in the end. _I wonder how those fools will rationalize this slip of the tongue._ his Yami cackled happily, peering out of Ryou's eyes at the events unfolding in front of them. Ever since Yugi decked Anzu, he had been a bit more awake and active. T_hat annoying bitch was lucky this time._ he added in a subdued tone, as if the consequences of something just hit him.

_Why is that, pray tell?_ Ryou mentally drawled out as Anzu got to her feet, brushed off her skirt and tucked her deck into her purse and adjusted her clothes. Anzu ran her left hand through her hair, making sure every strand was in place.

_The Millennium Puzzle contains a spirit._ his Yami started to explain, sounding very uneasy.

_I got that much; we had this discussion when Yugi snapped the first time._ Ryou cut in sarcastically as his Yami snorted.

_Just listen, Chibi-Hikari. The spirit of the Puzzle was the Pharaoh of that dynasty, the unknown one, and when he was bound to the puzzle there were a few circumstances that makes him dangerous._ he continued, sounding like he was biting his nails this time.

_How does that make Mazaki lucky?_ the teenager pressed on as his Yami mentally hit him over the head for interrupting him again.

_I'm getting to that, dumbass, if you would be patient and let me give you a prelude._ he snapped as Ryou brought a hand up and shook his head, catching Yugi's eye for a brief moment and noting her brief questioning look. _The Pharaoh is powerful and in his darkest time, before his soul was bound in the puzzle, he was sadistic and cruel against those who angered him. That bitch came within a hairs breath of having her soul crushed, she is lucky that he is not that active and Yugi is not spiteful._ Ryou was silent for a moment, than he realized he missed something while he was staring off into space.

"Hey man, come on." Hiroto stated as he drug the boy along the path behind Yugi and Mokuba while Anzu was grumbling and Jonouchi was silent as he followed.

_Why didn't you tell me about this last time? Like, when she finished the damned puzzle!_ he mentally shouted as his Yami growled in annoyance.

_Because you would do something like this and I barely remember everything as it is!_ he countered as Ryou physically flinched. _It wouldn't help you anyways; I can't go against the Pharaoh anyways because he'll decimate you and me. Just play it by ear._

_By ear?_ Ryou echoed in a deadpanned tone, as he was still drug along, not paying attention to the conversation around him.

_You'll see, Chibi-Hikari._ his Yami purred out with an evil cackle as Ryou shivered, hoping that this would not hurt him too much in the end.

As it started to get dark out, they settled in a relatively clear part of the forest. After two hours of arguing they finally reached an agreement about what to do, this was after Anzu had been silence by a glare from Yugi while Mokuba snickered. Now they were sitting around a crackling fire, silent because of the one-sided glaring match going on between an egotistical Anzu and a rather apathetic Yugi. Mokuba was munching on some crackers, from Yugi since he had asked if she had anything to snack on in her bag, and was leaning against her. "What's your favorite card?" Ryou asked from thin air as Jonouchi jumped a bit, Anzu blinked and turned to the white haired teen with a large grin, and Hiroto laughed out loud.

"What brought this on?" Yugi asked suspiciously as she felt an invisible hand on her shoulder, grip slowly tightening and giving away her Shadows paranoia about this innocent question.

"A little ice breaker before you high strung cats attack one another." He stated flippantly, waving a hand in dismissal but his grin never left his face. The tri-color haired teen knew that this could not be the same reserved, quiet Ryou who rarely spoke up or even acted like this. "Personally, I favor the Change of Heart card." He added as an example, pulling his deck from his pocket and pulling a card from the top of the deck. He showed it to them with a grin, showing he chose the card right off the bat.

"Big deal." Anzu stated as she got to her feet with arms crossed.

"I was going to propose a duel between myself and Yugi, using everyone's favorite cards." He added on, bringing her left hand up to cover his mouth. "You see, I am curious to why everyone seems to now know your name."

"I'm just unlucky like that, I guess." Yugi sarcastically replied as she felt her Shadow's hand slide down her back and than back up to her shoulder. "Is this official to Duelist Kingdom or to sate one's intellectual curiosity?" she asked with a sigh of defeat, eyes narrowing as Ryou grinned.

"Curiosity." He answered and started to shuffle his deck while staring at her. "Choose aside, everyone, and lend that person your favorite card for this duel." He told them as Hiroto and Anzu automatically drifted towards Ryou and Jonouchi hesitantly stood by Yugi while Mokuba was looking between the two groups.

"Katsuya!" Anzu growled out as the blonde boy looked away from her.

"I ain't going to follow your decisions forever, Anzu, but I don't think he'll win." He stated as her eyes narrowed and Yugi shrugged. "This doesn't mean we are friends." He told Yugi harshly as she glanced up at him with an indifferent look.

"Fine with me, I don't like you anyways." She replied as he pulled his deck from his own pocket and started to look through the cards while Yugi pulled her first deck from her belt and started to shuffle it. After a few minutes of deliberation, on Jonouchi's part, he reluctantly slipped a card into her deck while she was shuffling while Anzu and Hiroto did the same thing. When Ryou stopped shuffling and Yugi followed, but handed her deck to a weary Mokuba before she grabbed her bag and opened it.

"Delaying your horrible loss?" Anzu sneered as Yugi ignored her, but laughed as she pulled a clean and stilled rolled blue bath towel from her bag.

"Nope, looking for something to lay out as a table on the ground so our cards don't get ruined." She replied getting to her feet and walking about three feet from the fire, close enough to be in good light and far enough from the sparks that may fly from the fire. Ryou nodded his head in acceptance as he got up and took the place opposite of Yugi as she laid the towel out flat.

"It will work." He stated sitting Indian style while Yugi did the same thing, Mokuba already kneeling by her side and handing her the deck she left in his hands. Both sat their decks down, but Yugi froze as she felt a very familiar presence pressed against her back with arms around her shoulders. A kiss was pressed behind her ear as she felt her fingers twitch with the urge to hit her Shadow for his antics.

**You will not be dueling this time, my hikari.** a deep voice purred as her eyes did widen in shock this time, but only Ryou caught it since everyone else was frozen in place around them. **It is time they remember who they are defying.** With that she felt everything go black.

Sharp, crimson eyes regarded his opponent for a minute. The white haired teen that had been sitting across from Yugi was replaced by a man with white hair, which was spikier and fell into his storm gray eyes, with tanned skin and he was wearing a tattered white robe that was formless. A callused hand came up and brushed back some of his hair from his right eye, showing a short scar at the top and bottom of the eye, and the arm of the robe slid down to his elbow to show a black tattoo of a cobra around his wrist. "It's been awhile, Atemu." The man greeted in a gruff tone with a nod to the other.

Atemu. The teenager with the crimson eyes rolled the name around in his mind for a bit before agreeing that this was his name. He wore his white wrap around kilt with the side golden belt holding it on with gold bicep cuffs and bracelets not to forget the now present purple cape wrapped around his neck and shoulders, but now his face was revealed. He had sharp features, from the point of his chin to his high cheekbones, with his tri-colored hair spiked in the back and his bangs framing his face wildly, a golden crown that was dominated by the Eye of Ra visible on his head. "Nakhiti Zuka, the holder of the Millennium Ring and Thief King." Atemu stated as he got to his feet, tilting his head back and enjoying the slight breeze that passed over the area. "What do you want from this?"

"I had to lure you out some how, Pharaoh, but it is nice to see that your hikari has more control than you did." Zuka stated with a smirk, knowing the indirect insult would not shake the other but it did make him grit his teeth in annoyance. "It is too bad my Chibi-Hikari did not become friends with her before the puzzle was finished, she would have been a lovely girlfriend for him." Atemu's eyes cracked open as he glared at the thief king.

"Shall we adapt the old tradition to the new means?" Zuka asked the pharaoh with a devious smirk, his spiky hair making the smirk look all the more demonic. "These mortals do not understand what a true _duel_ is when they focus solely on these cards." he added picking up his deck as Atemu cautiously picked up the one he and his hikari had formed.

"Considering what you had them do, it would be for the best." Atemu stated dryly and shuffled his cards a few times, Zuka following suit. "What are the stakes of this duel, thief? I doubt you are doing this for pleasure." he added, eyes narrowed in annoyance while the other snorted.

"I want to beat you, Pharaoh, to beat you for what happened." he snapped as the Pharaoh just stared blankly at him for a moment and than shrugged.

"If you wish." the pharaoh simply replied, waving his hand in a dismissing gesture as the area around them changed from a forest setting to a room with a sand colored stone floor, two chairs set up across from one another at the edge of a circle that had been carved into the floor before the chairs. The walls were shadowed, but the faint outline of symbols could be seen and the ceiling was non-existent above them. "Sit, thief, and let us begin." he ordered turning to take the chair to their right while the other snorted and took the left chair.

"We forgot something." Zuka piped up as a wooden board with specific slots appeared, floating before them. "Now, we choose one that will be our defender, the one that will guard the board before us." he told the Pharaoh, who nodded. This had been a typical practice in their time, choosing one monster as their defender and with this change in times, they would choose a defender for their field of play.

"Will we be using the attack and defense points they awards or shall we go off of experience?" Atemu asked as he flipped through the deck in search of his defender, seeing Zuka had already withdrawn his defender and was now sitting his deck on the left side of the board. The white haired thief sat back, bringing his left hand up to cover his mouth in a typical thinking pose just as Atemu pulled his card from his deck and reshuffled his deck before sitting it down.

"That is too boring, knowing how the battle will end without allowing them free will. Let us truly honor those these cards depict and continue the old tradition." Zuka replied with a smirk as he sat the card to the side, face-up.

Change of Heart.

"How predictable." Atemu deadpanned as Ryou appeared in the long flowing robe with the one white wing and one black wing, looking rather annoyed.

"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded, turning on Zuka with a glare. "The last time you did this I ended up with a hangover and marks in places that should not have marks of that sort!" he shouted and whapped Zuka over the head with an irritated look, causing Atemu to look a bit surprised, the Thief King just glared at his Chibi-Hikari but it had no effect.

"Chibi-Hikari." he stated as the other did not look away from him and only crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his foot, looking very much like a nagging wife. "You do realize we are in the middle of a Shadow Duel and you are ignoring our opponent?" he asked pointing behind Ryou, who turned around and paled at the sight of the regal Pharaoh.

"Oh shit." he got out and pointed at Atemu than turned his head to look at Zuka and turned back to the amused looking tri-color young man. "You are going to get us killed!" he shouted and spun around and started to hit Zuka over the head before falling to his knees in tears. "I don't want to die!" he wailed as neither dared to move.

"Is he always like this?" Atemu asked with a weary glance at his card while the Thief King shrugged.

"I think he is, as they put it now, 'getting in touch with his feminine side' with all these emotional breakdowns and what-not." Zuka told him with a shiver. "But, this is the first time I seen such a show from him." That got him a tearful glare from the teenage boy.

"I so hate you." he muttered and got to his feet with a resigned sigh and took a hold of the board before sitting to the left of Zuka's feet, leaning against the armrest of the stone chair, with his shoulders hunched over in defeat.

"Well, Pharaoh?" Zuka mockingly stated, hoping to high heavens that things would get better. He than shivered as he remembered who was in his deck and who was in Atemu's, maybe that _**had **_been a bad idea.

Atemu placed his card face up and in defense mode, Yugi appeared in a long, straight, off-the-shoulder dress that had bell sleeves and was trimmed in white around the neckline with a white circlet visible against her tri-colored hair, which was down and falling past her waist. The Mystical Elf, which was odd to the Thief King since he used to summon the Dark Magician as his defender. "That was awkward." she muttered bringing both hands to her head, pressing her palms against her temples and closed her eyes. After a moment, getting her bearings back, she turned to her Shadow and attempted to keep back a blush since this was the first time she had seen his face without the shadowy mask. "Care to explain what is going on?" she asked in a steady voice, even if it betrayed her nervousness, as he smiled at her.

"A Shadow Duel." he simply stated and motioned forward while she tilted her head to the side, but accepted that answer without anymore question, considering it was a realm she had been brought to for the third of fourth time now. "You are the defender of my board, which will be like my life points. The first to take that board will win." He told her as she nodded again, tentatively reaching out and grabbing the floating object, ignoring the stares at her back.

"You are taking this exceedingly well." Ryou told her as she turned to them with a shrug.

"Don't have much of a choice now, do I?" she asked with a shrug of her shoulders and sat down between Atemu's legs, which made him grin as he made sure to press his legs against her side. Yugi took a moment to adjust how the dress fell around her outstretched legs and settled the board across her lap.

"Congratulations, Chibi-Hikari, you just lost our bet." Zuka happily crowed as Ryou glared at him. "Plus, she is taking this way better than you are. You are such a woman." he continued on as Ryou was definitely developing a twitch in the left corner of his eye at that comment, mentally swearing to never let his Yami watch television alone.

"Let us begin." Atemu stated as the two hikari's drew the cards and handed them up to their respective duelers. Atemu passed down two cards to his defender, leaning forward and whispering something to her as she put one card face down in defense and one magic card face down. He sat back up and started to run his fingers through her hair, a lazy grin on his face.

"What a brilliant start." Zuka grumbled to himself as he handed a card down to Ryou and let him make the decision. "Cyber Commander in attack mode." he called out as a two foot tall Hiroto in the Cyber Commander's armor appeared. This caused both Yugi and Ryou to turn away from the image before them, the two duelers were presently trying to figure out why the two were shivering. A scrawny Hiroto was dressed in a pair of combat pants, no shirt, with bullets slung from left shoulder to right hip and a rocket launcher on his right shoulder with a gun in hand and a partial gas mask on.

"Put on a shirt!" Ryou stated as Yugi refused to look up, in fear of going blind.

"Really, you can blind people with a chest that white." she muttered as Atemu leaned forward, resting his hands on her bare shoulders and whispering something to her again as she bowed her head a bit farther so her hair hid her face.

"Attack his face-down card, scrawny." Zuka barked out as the teen looked rather confused and afraid.

"Why are their two of you Ryou and why does Motou-san have a twin brother?" he asked looking between both sides. "Am I dreaming? Did having little to no food finally make me crack up?" he asked, more to himself than anyone else.

"Attack the damned card, or else!" the Thief King snarled pulling a blade from his robe sleeve and brandishing it with a demented grin. He let out a weird sound and charged at Yugi and Atemu, only to run smack into a stonewall that was called Giant Soldier of Stone.

"Oww..." he trailed off as the stone glanced down at him with a level star, bringing his stone sword up as Hiroto finally regained his senses and scrambled away before the sword buried itself in the stone floor. "Shit, this is insane!" he shouted as both sides ignored him.

"Your friend is rather pathetic." Zuka told Ryou, who shrugged and went back to staring at the board in front of him while Yugi drew a card and handed it up to Atemu.

"Play this in attack mode." he told her as she placed the Rogue Doll down, watching as the demented voodoo doll appeared on the field as a floating metal bra and arms, the right arm holding a staff, with purple cloth cascading around it from its headdress. "Rogue Doll, the field is yours to do with as you please." he stated with a respectful nod to the creature, who's metal mouth twisted into a grin as it turned to Atemu and Yugi and bowed its agreement.

"Hey, wait a minute." Hiroto stated, waving his arms around, as the doll brought its staff up and than sharply brought it down. Moments later Hiroto found himself faced with balls of light, mesmerized he reached out and touched one only to have it blow up in his face. "Damn it! Save me!" he shrieked and started to run around like a chicken without a head, which was highly amusing for the first three rounds me made. By his fourth circuit of the circle the balls had managed to set his hair on fire and he disappeared to the card graveyard with a pop.

"That was just too pathetic." Ryou muttered in embarrassment as the Giant Soldier of Stone shrugged and started to sharpen its sword on its leg in boredom. He quickly drew a card from the top of his deck and handed it to Zuka, who inspected his hand intently before he handed two cards to Ryou and than ruffled his hair. "Bastard." He grumbled and sat down one card in face up and an elf with purple hair and darkly tanned skin wearing a green off the shoulder dress with billowing sleeves and gold lining the neckline and a gold circlet in her hair.

Zuka noted that Atemu glared at the elf, leaning forward and slipping his hands around Yugi's biceps. The tri-color haired girl looked confused as she carefully got to her feet, only for Atemu to pull her back so that she was now seated on his lap and looking rather embarrassed. The Pharaoh glared at them as he managed to get her to maneuver so that her legs were over the right arm of the chair, her back was against the left arm with the board cradled in her lap, and his free left arm around her waist with his hand resting on her hip in a possessive gesture. "Damn it." The Thief King muttered as he suddenly remembered why the Pharaoh had such a negative reaction to the card he summoned.

"He's rather affectionate." Ryou noted as Zuka shivered.

"I just made a wrong move." He stated and ordered his Dark Elf to attack the Rogue Doll, bringing on a magic battle of epic proportions. Elemental magic flew around, the Giant Soldier of Stone being used as a shield by the Rogue Doll as the Dark Elf shrieked in anger and released high level destructive magic, which was making her tremble from the strain she was putting herself under. "To your comment, he is no affectionate he is possessive." He muttered resting both elbows on the armrest and letting his hands rest on his thighs, head thrown back with eyes shut.

"Why does he look like he wants to kill you?" the teenager asked as the Thief King was silent for a moment.

"I just reminded him of something terrible." Was his answer as the Rogue Doll was defeated, but the Dark Elf was hunched over and panting from the battle. They watched as Yugi drew a card and showed it to Atemu before picking a card that he had in his hand and putting that card face up in attack mode, watching as the Gemini Twins appeared on the field looking ready to battle, but than played a spell card.

"Graceful Dice." She stated as the Dark Elf glared at her for this decision. It was than a two foot tall Jonouchi appeared in the sky, wearing his school uniform only he now had on a blue top hat with wings and was carrying a large dice.

"This is so humiliating." He muttered and looked around at those present. "What's going on here?" he demanded as Ryou refused to answer.

"This is all a dream that came from not eating." Yugi stated as he dropped his dice and crossed his arms and than landed as the dice turned on a corner.

"Can I stay and watch than? Where ever I was before was boring and dark." Jonouchi stated with a pleading look, Yugi shrugged and Atemu looked indifferent.

"Go ahead, just sit outside the circle." Zuka stated as he spun to face him only to let out a weird 'eep' and fall flat on his but, staring at the slightly older and more menacing Ryou. "Well? Any day now so we can continue!" he snapped and watched the teenager crab walk backwards, out of the circle, as the dice landed on its side— proudly showing three dots on the top.

"Well, at least they get triple the power and defense." Yugi commented as Atemu moved his head so that he could press a hiss to her collarbone. "Hey!" she protested and brought her left hand up to brace on his shoulder, glaring at him for what he dared to do and got a mischievous smile in return.

"Attack." He told the two elves as they were already on the winded Dark Elf, turning the fight into a regular catfight complete with hair pulling and shrieking.

"All we need now is the jello ring." Jonouchi stated as he crossed his arms over his chest and watched the Dark Elf disappear, the Gemini Elves returning with scraps of her dress and looking pleased with their work as they proceeded to clean their nails, waiting for the next battle. Zuka reached over the side and drew a card before Ryou could react and placed it face down in defense mode before placing a magic or trap card face down, ending his turn.

As the turns progressed Zuka found that he was on the short end of the stick, despite how many times he broke Atemu's lines and thought he had one-upped the man. At the moment Zuka had two facedown monster cards while Atemu still had the Giant Soldier of Stone in defense mode. "One card, face down and in defense mode. Than, I activate Monster Reborn, choosing the Dark Magician, and will place him in attack mode." Atemu stated as the Dark Magician appeared in all his glory, looking rather stoic as he stood with his back to the Pharaoh, awaiting his orders. "Attack his face-down card." The Dark Magician charged forward and slammed the bottom part of his staff into the facedown card, forcing it to take shape. His eyes widened a bit as he drew back, than glared at the crazy looking jar before him before it disappeared.

"Morphing Jar. Discard your hand and draw another, Pharaoh." Zuka smugly stated as he folded his hand and handed the cards to Ryou, who drew six cards (since it is his turn), while Yugi decided to carefully slide off of Atemu's lap to sit on the ground where she had been before. The pharaoh frowned at her move while she ignored it, obviously pleased with her small show of rebellion and accepted the cards she passed up to him.

"This is rather neat, like watching one of those Saturday morning cartoons." Jonouchi mused as he leaned forward, ignoring the fact that two people he knew were involved and two look-alikes were dueling. It was a dream, after all, why not enjoy it? "Better than the things Pegasus has us dueling on."

"I'll play one card face down." Zuka announced, bringing attention back to him as Ryou accepted the card and put it in place. "And, the Swords of Revealing Light." He added and handed that card to his hikari, watching happily as the swords cut the circle in half. Yugi drew a card and looked at it for a moment than glanced up at Atemu and showed him.

"One card, face down." She stated placing the card face down in the first row as Atemu passed another card down to her with a smirk, running his fingertips over her collar bone as she shivered and glared at him from over her shoulder.

"Raigeki." Atemu intoned as Zuka flinched with the destruction of his only line of defense. "Dark Magician, you know what to do." He added with a smirk as the Dark Magician moved into action against the Thief King, who seized the board from Ryou and pointed at the field.

"Take him!" he snapped as Ryou cautiously engaged the Dark Magician, but neither noticed what was happening in the background. Zuka's eyes widened when he seen that Yugi was no longer in front of Atemu but about a foot away from himself, carefully pulling the board from his lax fingers, and was turning to dart away. He lashed out, but did not catch her as Atemu looked amused. "Dark Magician!" he shouted as the Magician stood straight up and nodded to him. "I summon the Magician of Faith." He added, on his feet and glaring at the smug pharaoh, holding the card out in front of him as Anzu appeared in a purple short sleeves robe over a red long sleeves shirt and pants with a gold rope around her waist. In one hand she held a staff with a crescent moon, which made Atemu's eyes narrow again and he got to his feet this time with his own board between his hands.

"Yugi!" he shouted as she did not look back, continuing her weaving through the attacks the Dark Magician sent at her while Ryou looked uneasy from where he was standing, a few feet away from Zuka. The tri-color haired girl crossed over the face down card and one of the magic attacks hit the card showing an angry Man-Eater Bug, pincers raised. The Dark Magician came to a stop as the bug was on him, both disappearing from view as Yugi stood by the sleeping Giant Soldier of Stone.

"Who's the hottie?" Anzu asked pointing at Atemu, drawing all attention to her and causing everything to fall silence. The pharaoh repressed a shiver as the brunette seemed to be staring intently at him while licking her lips.

"That doesn't matter now, get Yugi before I lose!" he snapped as she glanced at Yugi, who was dressed at the Mystical Elf, while Jonouchi was on his feet and standing by a tense Atemu. He frowned as Yugi handed the board to the Giant Soldier of Stone, after waking him up and had a short conversation with him as he went back into the defensive position, only his large arms curled around the board and he was hunched down over it, making a wall of stone around it.

"Shit!" Zuka snarled as Anzu charged at Yugi, bringing her staff up as the other girl tackled her. Anzu hit the ground and let go of the staff, sending it skidding about a half foot from her hand and the brunette was gone. The tri-colored haired girl let out an odd sound and fell forward in a sprawl as her leverage left suddenly, making Atemu raise an eyebrow in surprise and Ryou to snicker while Jonouchi shook his head.

"I believe we still possess your board, Thief King, and you have nothing else you can play since it is my turn. So, you lose yet again." Atemu stated as the other glared at him.

"Damn it." The Thief King growled as the Shadow Realms faded and all, but the two Millennium Spirits, blacked out.

* * *

**A/N:** Yes, I have forgone the use of "Yami Yugi" just because she is female and it would be a bit odd to call Atemu "Dark Yugi" if he is indeed male. Zuka is Yami Bakura, his past name as I had originally planned in the rewrite of the prequel/sequel (unsure of where it will fall now). As more of hte Egyptian names show up, I'll add a character guide. Hopefully the Shadow Duel was original and interesting.

**Betaed by S2teennovelist.  
****Rewrite Completed: **Saturday, 26 April 2008


	9. PRELUDE TO THE SEMIFINALS

**D. PRELUDE TO THE SEMI-FINALS: PART 1**

_I just know there's no escape  
Now once it sets its eyes on you  
But I won't run,  
Have to stare it in the eye_

_No more denying, I've got to face it  
Won't close my eyes and hide the truth inside  
If I don't make it, someone else will  
Stand my ground_

_Though this might just be the ending  
Of the life I held so dear  
But I won't run,  
There's no turning back from here_

_Stand My Ground, _Within Temptation from the album "The Silent Force"

* * *

When Yugi started to slowly wake up, she felt very confused and disoriented. Before the odd duel she had been kneeling at the edge of the towel they deemed to be their 'playing field' with nothing solid behind her to lean on. That meant that she should have been lying flat on her back in the dirt and not propped up against a tree, she knew she was leaning against the tree because she could feel the rough texture of the bark through her shirt. Without even opening her eyes she knew the Millennium Puzzle was still around her neck, the corner digging into her stomach was still there to her chagrin, but the gold felt oddly warm in the crisp morning. At this point her confusion was urging her to open her eyes, look around at the surroundings, and than go find some answers.

That was exactly what she did.

She stared at the transparent figure of her grinning Shadow, name still unknown who she did recognize by his spiked hair, who was sitting on her bag, at her right side. He looked rather transparent, as opposed to the solid touches she remembered from the night before, and as smug as the cat that caught the canary. **You look good with the Puzzle around your neck, my Hikari.** he stated happily, reaching out with his left hand to touch the puzzle that rested against her stomach while she tried to catch a hold of his wrist, only her hand passed right through his arm.

"A possessive bugger, aren't you?" she asked with a frown, a brief look of annoyance passing over her features as she brought her hand up to her face and waved it around a few time before letting her hand drop limply into her lap and her confused look returned. He still looked highly amused with her reaction to what just happened, only to shrug off the question and idly trace the upper right edge of the Millennium Puzzle while making sure to brush his finger tips over her covered ribs. She shifted uneasily, obviously a bit ticklish around her ribs, as a light blush appeared over her cheeks at such a casual touch. "Hey! Personal space, quit invading." She protested, to cover her blushing, while trying to bat his hands away, causing him to laugh as he brought his hand up and pressed it above her heart while his right hand came up to touch her face. "You're a friggin' ghost, this is so unfair." She muttered with a pout, resting the back of her head against the tree as he chuckled.

**I am a spirit, not a ghost. If I was a ghost that would imply that I have no chance of returning to my physical form nor would I be able to touch you and other physical things.** he told her leaning forward, no longer sitting on her bag but on his toes in a crouch while the hand that had been on her face moved past her face so that he braced himself against the tree all the while looming over her. **Those fools are lucky that the Thief King did not play for keeps.**

"Oh?" she asked as he leaned forward and nuzzled her cheek, knowing she had resigned herself to a defeat since she could not touch him but he could touch her— the one pro among the many cons of his present situation.

**He usually plays all or nothing, the all being the persons immortal soul. Those cards that had been added to your decks, their favorite ones, contained their souls. So, when they were left in the graveyard, they could have truly been killed.** he explained and kissed her right temple as she blushed, coming eye to eye with his chest while he grinned. **In this case he only wanted my soul and he cared little for the others, so unfortunately they will be fine when they wake up.**

"Joy." She deadpanned and brought her legs up to her chest, or as far as she could with the puzzle against her stomach, while her Shadow moved back to sit on his heels with his hands on his knees. "What about Mokuba?" she asked as he tilted his head to the side in question. "Spiky, black haired kid that had been by me?"

**The short one that called you… 'Ane', was it?** he asked as Yugi nodded stretching her arms up a bit, wincing as her shoulders and back popped with the movement and ignoring his eyes. **He was not there when we returned from the Shadow Duel, or else I would have brought him as well.** he answered as she than wrapped her arms around her knees, carefully leaning forward enough to rest her chin on her knees.

"Curse it all, I wanted to ask him what was going on and why he was here!" she muttered as he leaned forward and stroked her hair. "Before welcoming the game, would you happen to have a name I could call you?"

**Atemu, or my Pharaoh if you wish.** he stated with a leer as she glared at him.

"Atemu it is." Yugi deadpanned and managed to get to her feet as he disappeared.

**For now.** he promised in a dark purr that made her shiver as she leaned down to pick up her bag. With a sigh she set off in a random direction, seeing there was no path wherever Atemu had taken her, and so started the second day of Duelist Kingdom.

"Well, I wonder what this morning will bring." She stated out loud, tilting her head back to stare at the clear blue sky through the canopy of leaves.

**It is** **more like late afternoon or early evening.** he corrected, staring at the sky himself as she groaned in annoyance. Practically an entire day had been wasted, all because she had been knocked out by the Shadow Duel! Yugi attempted to get up, only to find that her legs refused to listen to her and a few of her joints were protesting, so she slid back down the tree and decided that she would be safer to let her body wake up on its own terms. She brought her left hand to her left hip, blindly groping for the two pouches with her deck and back-up deck, and managed to get the pouched open and pulled out the plastic container that held the cards so that the cards would not be ruined. **Bored?** he asked getting to his feet and moving to sit by her as she carefully stretched her legs out in front of her so she could sit the decks in her lap.

"Worried, something does not feel right." Yugi replied opening the case for her main deck and slipping the cards out of it. "Up till now things have been quiet, but things will probably change with the fact that people have to have ten chips by this point and he'll probably want to observe some high level duels."

**Than it would be good to change our deck a bit.** he agreed and picked up the other deck and easily opened the container and tipped the deck into his hand. **Maybe listen to me a bit more, my Hikari?** he teased and began to look through the deck, easily picking out several cards he wished to add to the main deck while she thumbed through the main deck and sat a few cards on her right knee to be replaced.

"I think I miss when you were a mime." She sarcastically muttered as he snorted and swiped the cards she sat aside from her knee and placed them back into the secondary deck, shoving that into its container and dropping it into her lap before grabbing the main deck and shuffling the cards he sat aside into it. "Hey!" she let out as he put that back into its container and looked smug.

**Trust me.** he told her, reaching around her waist and hooking that to her belt. **My decision goes, my Hikari.** he stubbornly told her and disappeared as Yugi growled and picked up the secondary deck and hooked that into place.

"Pushy bastard." She muttered getting to her feet, seeing at least another hour had passed, and than picked her bag up and slinging it over her right shoulder, before pulling her hair tie from her hair and than putting it back up in a bun that had the ends fanned out above the bun. "Wonder what fun is on the agenda for the rest of today." She mused to herself.

After wondering around without direction for three hours and Atemu was content with staying invisible but making random comments to her, most of which made her blush and debate the many ways of making him suffer for them. The latest argument was cut short when Yugi heard a scream sound from close to her position at the edge of the forest. She thought about the ramifications of her decision for a moment before taking off running towards the source of the scream, hoping that it was nothing serious.

**It is amazing how little you have changed, my Hikari.** she heard Atemu state in a fond tone, but she did not stop to question him to why he made it sound like they had met before.

After running full out for a few minutes, she slowed to a jog when she made it part of the way across a grassy glade. She stopped when she seen Mazaki's friends arguing with a tall, muscular man wearing a dueling gauntlet that had at least two rows of stars with the first row totally filled up. What confused her was the fact that he was holding Mai by her wrist, the blonde young woman looking a little uncomfortable with her arm stretched above her head, but she extracted her revenge by landing one solid kick to the man's left knee and than quickly sprinted away from him and stopping when she was behind the group. Yugi felt no sympathy for the man and hoped that the heel of Mai's boot left a lasting impression.

"Why should I help you? You are the competition." She heard Anzu sneer at the glaring blonde, who had obviously asked for some help from the brunette.

"Because, it was your loud mouth that got me into this situation. If you had not pissed that eliminator off I would still have my damned star chips but you had to go shooting off your mouth and drag me into it instead of stepping up yourself, you mediocre little bitch." The blonde snarled as Jonouchi crossed his arms and took a few steps back to stand with Mai, obviously choosing where he stood on this issue.

"Jonouchi!" Anzu shrieked as Mai let her angry expression fall into a brief look of shock before that turned into a crown with her own arms crossed under her chest. "How dare you take her side on this, she is the competition and not everyone can be nice in this. It is the survival of the fittest." The brunette stated with her nose in the air while the man watched the argument, glaring at everyone and waiting for the squabble to break up.

"Motou warned me about you, Mazaki, and I stupidly ignored her cause I thought she was just ragging on you like you do her." He stated as Hiroto looked confused, his best friend or Anzu, while Ryou was just observing the event.

"Motou is a psycho that doesn't know anything, she's a loser and will always be so." Anzu snapped with her blue eyes blazing in fury and her hands on her hips. It was at this point that Yugi approached the group, smirking when she seen Ryou's wide-eyed and dropped jaw.

"Please don't bring me into this." Yugi loudly stated as all turned towards her.

"Butt out of this, Motou." The brunette girl snarled as Mai frowned.

"Is this little soap opera done yet?" the man gruffly stated, reminding everyone that he was still there. "Blondie has a boat to catch seeing she lacks the chips to stay in the competition."

"Like hell am I going!" Mai shouted at him as Anzu laughed, obviously pleased with what she had done. Yugi rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat, she knew she might regret this decision but if it pissed Anzu off it would be a win-win situation.

"How about this." Yugi stated and sauntered forward, shoving her hands into her pockets, and stopped when she stood between Mai and Jonouchi and the man. "I'll duel you, all my star chips for all your star chips." She proposed as the man grinned, baring his yellow teeth as he leered at her.

"How about a little bit more?" he asked as Yugi scowled.

"Like hell, only the star chips dumb ass." She snapped as he shrugged.

"Your funeral." He stated and motioned to a dueling arena, which was shadowed, about twenty feet behind him. "Let's duel than." With that he turned on his heel and approached the arena just as Mai stormed forward and grabbed Yugi's shoulder, causing the tri-color haired teen to turn towards her.

"Are you nuts?" Mai hissed out as Jonouchi and the others were whispering furiously to one another while Ryou edged away from them. "That is Panik, he's an eliminator that Pegasus hired to make sure duelists were weeded out and things progressed. I'm a seasoned duelist and he defeated me like that." She added snapping her fingers.

"Point? I am doing this because I want to and I need the star chips, I'll just reimburse you for the ones you lost and we'll go our separate ways until the semi-finals." Yugi stated as if she was talking to the child, gently brushing the hand from her shoulder. "Do you really think I want a bitch like Mazaki to make it that far?" with that Yugi made her way towards the dueling arena while Mai stared at her back with a mixed feeling— part of her respected Yugi for what she was going to do and the other part of her wondered just who the hell the teen was and why she was so nuts.

Yugi got up to the platform without any hassles and stepped up to the consol on the top of the one pedestal only to have metal shackles snake out from the sides and around her ankles. She tested her bindings and frowned, this was odd and not particularly safe and she did not remember a clause in the waver that said anything about near-Death Duels. "Is there a reason why I can't make a sudden leap from here?" she drawled out as he laughed.

"You are a hard person not to recognize, Motou-san, seeing Pegasus-sama gave us Eliminators a little incentive to make sure you duel us." He proudly stated as he shuffled his deck, Yugi stalled a bit by removing her bag and stashing it under the console so it would not get in her way since she was unsure about dropping it to the ground from this height.

"What makes her so special?" Anzu demanded as the group decided to get closer and watch the duel.

"Pegasus-sama is very interested in you, says that if you want to beat him you'll have to get past at least one or two of us before you could even match to his genius." Panik continued smugly, ignoring Anzu completely, as Yugi pulled her deck from her side and started to shuffle it.

"I doubt your intentions are all that nice, considering my present situation. What do you want from this?" she asked suspiciously as he slammed his deck down on his console.

"I want the money that he offered for beating you, the bounty on your head outstrips any of the others." He added as she twitched. "Hopefully there is a thought in that pretty little head, cause I figure you had Kaiba focused on other things and that allowed you to win." He stated arrogantly as Yugi grit her teeth and sat her deck down.

**Let me kill him, my Hikari.** Atemu hissed in her mind as she felt the presence of his touch on her shoulders and his breath against her ear, but she did not have to look over her shoulder to know that he was not visible. **He has insulted you; I will not stand for this.** he added, but Yugi did not let his anger sway her emotionally or physically.

"We will duel first." She stated, more of an answer to Atemu than anything, knowing she did not say anything against not killing the man. That calmed the Pharaoh a bit, but he would have his revenge for such words.

"Careful, Yugi he's a ruthless bastard!" Mai shouted, knowing it would not help the teen now that she had committed herself.

"He also looked like he flunked out of Clown College." Yugi muttered to herself as the sun was suddenly blocked out and the arena cast into shadows. Suddenly a jet of flame went off on both sides of her, causing Yugi to fall into a crouch instead of throwing herself back. "Are you friggin' nuts?" she hissed, popping up as he cackled.

"Scared, girly?" he sneered as she laid both hands on the console, eyes narrowed. She could feel Atemu at her back still, only his anger matched her own and she knew, deep in her soul and mind, that if he had his way the other duelist would not be standing before them now.

"Pissed." She retorted and drew her cards, calling the duel to begin. "You have a lot to compensate for if your using fire to scare someone half your age." She shouted as he glared at her.

"Is she nuts?" Mai asked out loud, mentally snickering at the comment.

"You're going to lose, Motou!" Anzu taunted as Panik smirked and put a card face down in the first row. Yugi drew a card and decided to take a chance, or rather a large gamble, and placed it face up in attack mode. It was than the Celtic Guardian, 1400 attack and 1200 defense, appeared on the field waiting for orders.

"Shut up, Mazaki, I get enough of your mouth in school." Yugi replied without taking her eyes off of her cards and the console. "Celtic Guardian, attack his face down card." She stated as the Celtic Guardian darted forward and slashed at the card, only to be thrown backwards by a strong defense. The card flipped over and a large castle appeared in the sky, the kanji in front making her twitch. This was definitely going to sting.

"Your warrior elf just met my castle, Motou." Panik stated making her twitch at the pathetic attempt at a joke. She watched as her life points dropped from 5000 to 4270, all thanks to the card and its field bonus. A sigh escaped her as she recognized the Castle of Dark Illusions, originally 920 attack and 1930 defense now had 1120 attack and 2130 defense, floating above the field of play and casting his side of the field into an even deeper darkness. He cackled and drew a card, slipping it into his hand before taking another card from his hand and put it down on the field face-up, but she could see nothing but a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness and even the console kept the card shadowed as well. He then quickly ended his turn as Yugi frowned, looking down at her cards and attempting to formulate a plan that could combat the dark field. "Attack the Celtic Guardian!" he bellowed as something darted from the shadows and took out the warrior elf and quickly retreated back to its dark haven. Her life points dropped again, this time by 800 to 3470.

What a lovely beginning.

"That puts a damper on things." Yugi muttered to herself as she drew a card and tucked it into her hand before she pulled a different from and placed it face-down in defense mode and than followed by putting down a magic card, ending her turn. She already accepted that she would be in for a long duel against this man, his tactics already giving her a slight headache and Atemu's homicidal urges making things ten times worse. "Too bad I am too lazy to dig out my flashlight." He snorted and drew another card and than played it face up ending his turn without attacking.

_Damn Pegasus and his rules._ She thought with a sigh and drew a card, placing that one face down and ending her turn.

"What are you waiting for? Take her out already!" Anzu shouted impatiently as Panik glared at her and drew a card, slipping it into his hand and placing another card face up on the field. It was odd that he did not attack, but Yugi chalked this up to pure luck and the fact he had something else up his sleeve.

"I'd rather draw out her demise, it'll be better when she is reduced to tears by the end." Panik stated confidently as Yugi twitched.

"Tears of laughter." Yugi deadpanned as the Eliminator did not take that well, so he adjusted a few controls under the guise that he was looking over his cards. Yugi flinched and crouched down as fire blazed over her head. "Are you done with you five-year-old tantrum?" she asked in a rather strangled tone and getting back to her feet, only this time a bit shakey.

"I think your trembling, Yugi, afraid of me yet?" he asked, baring his teeth in a manner he thought was intimidating.

"It is hard to fear a grown man that hides behind weapons to duel someone half his age." She snapped as his eyes narrowed and his good mood faded a bit. "Nice try." Was her parting comment as they returned to the duel.

"Just wait and see, Anzu-san." Jonouchi stated as the brunette turned to glare at him. "Not all duels are action packed, this one has more riding on it than your own and that man is obviously skilled." Ryou looked a bit surprised by the blonde teens statement.

"He's a ruthless monster and she's getting herself in over her head." Mai cut in as Jonouchi glanced at her.

"Don't put Motou-san down too quickly, Mai, I have a feeling none of us truly know her capabilities." Ryou stated, mentally ignoring the comments his Yami was making about how false that statement was and that he was.

Yugi drew a card and stared at it blankly for a moment before playing it face up with an amused look on her face. The gold colored Curse of Dragon, attack 2000 and defense 1500 but with the bonus the creature was now attack 2200 and defense 1700, appeared on the field, roaring its summoning to the arena as many cringed. "Take the Castle." She stated as the golden dragon took to the air and swooped down on the Castle of Dark Illusions, blowing fire as it did so and the castle was gone and the heavy darkness it had cast quickly faded.

"What?" Panik snarled as his three monsters were revealed—King of Yamimakai (originally 2000 attack/1530 defense, now 2200/1730) and two Dark Chimeras (1610 attack/1460 defense before the bonus, now 1810/1660).

"What are you complaining about? I'm the one down close to 3000." She deadpanned as he snorted at her statement, drawing a card since her turn was over. He snorted and put that card down facedown in defense mode before he made his move.

"Dark Chimera, attack her first face-down card." He bellowed with a demented grin as one of the two creatures with fangs darted forward and swiped at the card, only to be thrown back by a blob of water as a purple masked wizard with spiked purple hair and a green cloak appeared crouching in the card's place— the Aqua Madoor (1200 attack/2000 defense)—and Panik's life points dropped 190 to 4810. "King of Yamimakai, take out her Aqua Madoor." He snarled as the ugly creature ran forward and broke through the water defense and the card was sent to the graveyard.

"She's on the ropes." Anzu stated as Yugi drew a card, considering when the brunette would stop making such fatalistic comments. It was a bad show of character. The tri-color haired girl looked over her hand again and a plan formed, most of it revolving around three cards and the possibility of drawing the third within the next five rounds. She did not even flinch when Panik decided she had been taking too long and activated the flame throwers to either side of her, only she just focused on rearranging her cards according to how she would play them and not flinching like the previous two times.

"Hurry up!" Panik snarled as she ignored him too, causing a tick to develop in the corner of his left eye. She laid down another magic card and than glanced up at him with a smirk on her face.

"I bet I can beat you in five turns." Yugi boldly declared, hoping that her harebrained scheme would not blow up in her face. Five turns would give her enough time to shave points off of him and hope that she drew the one card she would need.

"Bullshit." Panik stated with a chuckle as Mai was biting her nails, Jonouchi was unsure of his thoughts on the duel, Ryou was amused and hiding in the shadows behind the group, Anzu was still proudly declaring Yugi's demise, and Hiroto was fawning over Anzu.

"So you say." The tri-color haireed teen countered and pulled a card from her hand and showed it to him, the card being the Magician of Black Choas. "He will be your downfall, Panik, all I need is the Black Magic Ritual to summon him since I already of the needed cards. So sweat a bit, clown man." This caused the Eliminator to laugh insanely at her proclamation as she placed the card back in her hand.

"Bring on, kid." He snarled and turned his attention back to his deck, a bit shaken by her declaration.

"She's insane!" Mai whispered as Jonouchi shrugged and Panik took his turn, drawing one card and putting down a magic card before telling one of the two Dark Chimeras to attack Yugi's other face down card. The Chimera was thrown back as the Giant Soldier of Stone appeared, inflicting 190 points of damage and bringing Panik's life points to 4260. He, predictably, destroyed the Giant Soldier of Stone with King of Yamimakai before ending his turn. Yugi drew a card, tucked it into her hand and took in a deep breath.

"First, I activate Mystical Typhoon to take out your only magic card." Yugi clearly stated as his magic card was automatically moved to the graveyard. After than she pulled another card from the far right side and put it down in attack mode and a tall figure in dark robes carrying a staff appeared on the field. "Dark Magician, attack King of Yamimakai." She continued as the wizard, with a boosted attack of 2700 and defense of 2300, brought his staff up and slashed it across his opponent and caused him to disappear. Panik scowled as his life points dropped another 500 points to 3760. "Curse of Dragon, attack one of his Dark Chimeras." She finished as the Curse of Dragon took to the sky and attacked one of the two remaining monsters on the field, dropping his life points another 390 to 3370 and putting them practically on level ground.

"You bitch." He hissed out as she ended her turn with a smile, which did not fade as he punched the button for the fire again. If anything she looked a bit sinister as she stared straight at him and that was only a fraction of what really scared him, it was the dark shadow with blazing crimson eyes and a golden eye on his forehead that made his palms really sweat. As the fire disappated he seen no one behind her, but she was still staring at him with a look that dared him to do more.

Four turns passed with little happening but the destruction of Panik's Dark Chimera and him laying down cards face down and in the defensive position to avoid losing any life points. The only thing he managed to do was play the Dark Hole card, removing everything from the field and than playing a monster card. As Yugi began her fifth turn, she was worried because she did not have the final card for her plan. Drawing a card she stared, twitched, and fought hard to keep the smirk that wanted to break her neutral façade. "Looks like you are all fluff." Panik stated as she touched the last card that was face down in the second row. "I took out your Dark Magician, so even if you have the card you couldn't summon him!" he cackled, thinking he won while Yugi rolled her eyes and ignoring Atemu's purr of contentment about the plan ahead of them.

"First, I activate Dark Hole just to make this a little easier on myself." She stated as the entire field was cleared of monsters, to Panik's annoyance and fear. "Now I play Lord D, face up." The man in dragon like armor appeared, with an attack of 1200 and defense of 1100 which was boosted to 1400 and 1300 respectively.

"That weak thing can't guard you." Panik laughed, knowing he could take the Lord out the next round and its direct attack would barley make a dent in his remaining life points. "What happened to the ritual? How disappointing." He added with a mock tone of sadness while she just grinned at him, causing him to squirm uncomfortably.

"Than I equip him with the Flute of Summoning Dragon." Yugi continued as Panik's laugh faded and he glared at her this time. "With the Flute's effect, I can summon up to two dragons from my hand." She added cheerfully and pulled a card from her hand and put it down. It was than a white dragon with blue eyes appeared with a roar.

"Not possible!" Mai whispered as Yugi smirked.

"The Blue-Eyes White Dragon, one of my Grandfather's prized cards, summoned by the flute and here to finish orchestrating your demise." She proudly stated and rested both of her hands on the console, than she cheerfully ordered the last two attacks.

Panik stared at the red zero displayed by Yugi's own life points, which was 1500. He growled and fiddled with the controls, wanting the other to suffer as much as possible, and bared his teeth while punching the button as she gathered her deck together. He seen the fire obscure her from view, but there was something else that made him sweat, made him freeze in place. **"I was originally going to let you go, unscathed, but for attacking my Hikari…"** a deep voice trailed off as he fell into darkness after feeling extreme pain centered in his chest. Than he felt the pain all over as his vision started to darken, but he could hear the laughter of the shadow before the pain became too much.

"I don't think he's a man that upholds the rules of good sportsmanship." Yugi stated as the shackles retreated from around her ankles just as Panik slumped forward over the console. She seen the vague outline of a young man, but that was gone quickly She stiffened and felt a hand place something in her left pocket with a lingering touch trace up her thigh and past her hip before fading.

**Your prize.** Atemu whispered with a chuckle as she let herself relax a bit, rolling her shoulders and exhaling the breath she had been holding. Yugi slipped the deck back into its pouch on her belt and stuck her hands into her pockets, checking the small pile of chips with a sigh. Thank goodness it was dark out and hopefully none of them would ask questions, or else she'd have to be very convincing with her insane excuse.

Pulling her hands from her pockets she crouched down and grabbed her bag, slinging it over her shoulder, and than made for the ladder that led down to the ground. Anzu was arguing with Jonouchi about something with Ryou patiently waiting for something and Hiroto standing a few steps behind Anzu while Mai approached her. "Who the hell are you?" the blonde woman asked as Yugi pulled the hair tie from her frazzled hair and let the coil fall past her shoulders.

"Not bad, eh?" Yugi asked as Mai crossed her arms under her chest and shifted her weight to her left foot with a typical annoyed expression on her face. The teenager reached into her left pocket and pulled out a handful of the star chips, carefully counting eight off, picking the other four up with her right hand. "The eight I promised." Mai accepted them as Yugi shoved the four in her right hand into her right pocket.

"Thanks." Mai stated gratefully, not expecting the other to stick to her word.

"I want a chance to duel you, but not here, because it sounded like you have another score to settle." Yugi stated as she pointed to the glaring Anzu. "Have fun." with that said and done, Yugi quickly turned to leave the scene while the blonde woman started to lay into Anzu before issuing a challenge.

"Motou-san!" she heard Ryou shout as he jogged to catch up with her, Jonouchi and Hiroto watching them from the corners of their eyes. It seemed the old habits died hard.

"Yes?" she dryly asked as he smiled, obviously putting on a show as he nodded to the two boys.

"I told them that they had a dream induced by something they ate." He told her as she frowned, confused for a moment before it dawned on her. The Shadow Duel, of course he would have had to run interference for that. "The only thing you missed was Hiroto's whining about the Reaper of the Cards, Jonouchi's muttering about sleeping with his cards under his head, and Anzu's bemoaning about not catching the name of the, and I quote, 'hot guy that was being defiled by that loser.'" She blinked a few times.

"Huh?" was her only intelligent response as he snorted.

"The story, so if they remember the next time we meet you can play along." he explained with a grin as she sighed.

"Personally, I was going to deny everything but thanks for the heads up." Yugi stated with a mock salute as he shrugged and watched her walk away. "See ya' guys at the castle."

* * *

**A/N:** All still applies, but not much for this chapter. The program was being a bit pissy, but all worked out.

**Rewrite Completed: **Thursday, 15 April 2008  
**Edited/Beat'd:** S2teennovelist (Been helping me out since around the thrid chapter)


	10. PRELUDE TO THE SEMIFINALS: PART II

**E. PRELUDE TO THE SEMI-FINALS: PART II**

_We'll show 'em what were're made of  
As we fight for the ones we love_

I wanna give up  
But I won't give in  
I don't wanna do with my very best friend  
We're equal match  
and put it to play  
With so much at sake  
I just can't walk a way  
Though I need a victory  
You always meant the world to me  
That's one thing that will never change

_No Matter What,_ from the album "Yu-Gi-Oh!: Music to Duel By"

* * *

The rest of the night had passed relatively quickly and without any more issues, except for the things that go bump in the night and the urge to take a long, hot shower when civilization was found. In the morning Yugi had changed into her second to last clean shirt, which was a black t-shirt that had ' I'm a Ninja (now you can't see me)' written on the front in white lettering, and a pair of faded blue jeans with no knees while pulling her hair back up into a bun. After her change and welcoming of the day, she made her way towards Pegasus's castle and arrived only to find a familiar face waiting impatiently for her and that someone was Kaiba Seto. She paused and took note that his expression was rather grim with his arms crossed over his chest and the breeze whipping his overcoat around his feet dramatically. "Careful, you might be mistaken for Superman or Batman with that pose." She stated as his stoic face broke for a split second, the guards snickered at the comment as she crossed the distance between them rather quickly. "Where the hell have you been?" At this point she stood about a foot from him, only to have him grab her arm and walk towards the stairs she just spent the last five minutes climbing.

"Trust me." He hissed out and led her down the stairs to the first of two landings, out of sight of the castle and the guards but in sight of the people that may arrive later on.

"What's with the cloak-and-dagger act?" she asked as he leaned against the stonewall, bracing his hands against the corner while refusing to look her in the eye as she crossed her arms above the Millennium Puzzle and patiently waited for an answer.

"He has most places bugged and under surveillance— the arenas, the entrance, his guards." He replied, still refusing to look at her.

"Okay, I'll accept that, but why did you disappear like you did?" Yugi asked in an exasperated tone, getting tired of dancing around the subject.

"Something happened." Kaiba stated abruptly as she fixed him with a dead stare that clearly said, 'no shit Sherlock.' "Pegasus is working with a group that was loyal to The Kaiba." Yugi did not need any elaboration, The Kaiba was his way of referring to Kaiba Gozuboro without any formal title of respect, and the group in question had to be the abusive man's little cliché of friends, the board of directors for KaibaCorp before the man's death and their sudden outing by his heir.

"One final attempt to get back on top of the world." She muttered as he nodded. "Doesn't explain why Mokuba was running around here a day or so ago or why you suddenly show up now, you could have easily taken Pegasus out in the media and behind the scenes." He looked up at her and gave a hollow laugh, which made her frown because that meant things were worse than he was letting on and she was not reading far enough into what he was telling her.

"Pegasus kidnapped Mokuba a day before they tried to kidnap me." Kaiba told her, now turning to look her straight in the eye. "I have been here for less than a day, to challenge Pegasus for my brother." He paused again as something she said finally made its way through his muddled mind. "Mokuba? You seen him?" he demanded, on his feet with his hands on her shoulders and a wild look in his eyes. "Where is he?" He shook her a bit as she brought her hands up and grabbed his wrists, eyes narrowed.

"I don't know! He disappeared soon after he found me, I didn't get a change to talk to him either because Mazaki and her friends than stumbled across us and you know it is hard to ask someone something while she is screeching." Yugi answered as he did not let her shoulders go, but he slid his arms around her shoulders and suddenly pulled her into a tight hug. This caused Yugi to freeze while he just held on to her, obviously needing some sort of physical anchor to remind him that things have not totally gone down hill.

"He told me I would have to win five star chips from you in order to duel against him, to utterly decimate you just to see what else you have up your sleeve." He whispered into her ear and did not move, letting his defenses down for once in a few stressful weeks. "He told me you pulled a Blue-Eyes White Dragon against one of his more challenging Eliminators."

"A last minute addition to my deck, I brought the card in honor of Grandpa." Yugi told him as she brought a hand up to rub his back. "I removed it afterwards and switched a few others cards since then."

"Good." He whispered and pulled away from her, hands resting on her shoulders as he looked down at her with a small smile, which made her wonder what just how much happened to him to bring out this odd emotional side.

"Kaiba, I want to know everything that has been going on." She sternly told him as he frowned. "I am tired of being in the dark." It was than his eyes narrowed, his hands left her shoulders as he backed up a few more feet and she thought she had crossed the boundaries and made him angry.

"I will tell you after I duel Pegasus and win, right now Mazaki and her group are about to hit the first steps. We best make this look show good for that bastard and them or else they will suspect something is up." He gruffly told her and turned around, his over coat flaring a bit as he ascended the stairs.

"You pretty much pulled me down here, Kaiba, how can we redeem that?" she asked throwing her arms in the air as he chuckled.

"Just say I threatened you." Kaiba threw over his shoulder as Yugi felt a twitch develop in the left corner of her eye again. Of course Kaiba would say something like that, but this meant she could get him back for that. They both knew that his threats would not follow through with her because she was more likely to take him out than anything.

"I swear he is turning into a drama queen." Yugi muttered to herself as she let him get halfway up the stairs before following. She just wanted this entire thing done and over with, now things took another turn for the worse. When she hit the top of the stairs for the second time the true show began.

Anzu was still angry that she had lost to Mai, giving the blonde the needed star chips to compete, while she had to find someone else to duel, seeing Jonouchi also had the required ten star chips and refused to duel her. She paused as everyone behind her looked curious about what was unfolding in front of them. "I challenge you, Motou Yugi, for five star chips." Kaiba stated boldly as Yugi crossed her arms and looked rather bored.

"Then I forfeit the match." Yugi declared without preamble, bringing her hands up in the international sign of defeat for moment before letting her arms fall to her sides. "I won't duel you under these terms and not for the sadistic pleasure of that psycho with the gender crisis." She added as Kaiba looked a bit surprised.

"What?" he got out as she shrugged and waved a hand in dismissal.

"Here, five star chips." She added bringing her left hand to the dueling gauntlet and popping five of the golden stars from the slots while he stared at her in shock. Yugi rolled her eyes and brought her hand up and offered them to him. "Seto, I am not going to duel with you if I know you will do anything to win. Not fair." Jonouchi frowned as he watched her take a few steps closer and dropped them into his still extended and open hand

"Wha… How? What the?" he got out as she snorted and turned to leave.

"Very eloquent for a billionaire CEO, Kaiba." She added as he twitched and stared down at the chips. "Don't spend them all in one place and don't waste them." With that she turned to leave, as if she had no more star chips.

"Poor Yugi, brought down by her foolish notion of friends." Anzu sneered as Yugi paused by her.

"At least my friends know they can trust me not to stab them in the back. What about you?" she retorted and sauntered down the stairs, but Mai knew better and followed her down to the landing where Kaiba had told her about everything.

"Hey Yugi!" Mai shouted as she jogged to catch up with the tri-color haired teen that was standing at the bottom of the stairs with her hands in her pockets and looking rather relaxed. Mai froze in her tracked when Yugi turned to face her with a devious grin, which was rather disturbing on the tri-color haired teen's face. "What's with the sudden generosity?"

"I just had some extra chips laying around and it would not have been as fun if I just told him that." She replied pulling her right fist from her pocket, opening her fingers to show extra stars. "No one paid attention to the bet I made at the beginning of my duel with Panik, he had at least eighteen or so star chips." The older blonde looked a bit embarrassed by that, since she did have a verbal catfight with Anzu. "Eight to you, two on mine, than minus five to Kaiba, leaving me with six to draw from…"

"You just gave Kaiba five star chips." Mai pointed out, totally ignoring the last half of what Yugi had said and paused as the teenage girl nodded and pulled out her remaining star chips from her pocket and than began to put the stars into the empty slots on her gauntlet, leaving one extra and that was shoved back into her pocket.

"His pride would not let him take the chips normally, such as me just saying 'Hey Kaiba, I got some extra chips that I want to give you.' Not to mention there were cameras and microphones up there, or so he said and he's been rather paranoid as of late, that Pegasus put in placed in hopes of scouting out a duel between us." She pointed out as the blonde twitched.

"Aren't you perfect?" she growled out as Yugi snorted and slipped her hands back into her pants pockets after the last chip was in place.

"No, I am going off what I was told and since Kaiba challenges me to games all the time. We never compete against one another with the intent to trump one another, goes against a childhood promise we made." The teenager replied and stared past her, up at the castle. "Best go on ahead with them, I doubt Katsuya has taken my advice."

"Advice?" Mai asked turning on her heel and ascending the stairs.

"To dump Mazaki before she did something horrible to him." Yugi replied as Mai rushed up the stairs, not knowing how to take the fact that the odd Motou Yugi had a point despite what she heard from the group. She had heard Mazaki, Katsuya, and Honda talk about her like she was an idiot or arrogant teenage girl while the Bakura boy just shook his head and answered, when she asked him privately, that he did not know Motou Yugi all that well but he would wager her to be a dangerous person on the other side of a duel.

Yugi watched with as Mai took off up the stairs, obviously she had a bit on her mind to get away that quickly. With a snort she followed, wanting to see Kaiba's duel against Pegasus and hopefully defeat the silver haired CEO but something told her that Kaiba was going to lose. Shaking her head, she tried to will her mind to be a bit more optimistic since Kaiba was a damn good duelist and not a novice. Before she knew it she was standing before the surprised guards, showing them that she indeed did have ten star chips despite what had happened before, and they handed her a blank card, which caused her to frown in confusion and glance at them oddly but they ignored her in favor of rattling off the standard instructions for the finalist before heading into the castle. They basically told her to head into the castle and than to precede to the dueling arena, what a brain buster.

The outside courtyard was beautiful flower garden with a spattering of shrubs and trees, but the inside was lavish and reflected Pegasus's character rather well. The rugs were all a deep red with the walls paints a pristine white while the trimmings were done in a lighter red. Ever so often down the hall there were alcoves with pedestals that showed beautiful artifacts or antiques that many a museums would sell their life's work to get a hold of for displays. Taking in a deep breath she turned to go down the right corridor, since Pegasus neglected to put up signs or have someone help her find the place, and decided that wandering around would be fun. Her pace picked up a bit when she felt Atemu getting a bit restless for no reason, seeing no one else was in the corridor that could possibly antagonize him. **Get rid of that card.** Atemu told her as he appeared in front of her, which made her come to a sudden stop.

"Why?" she asked with a frown, glancing to her right and seeing a set of large, dark wood, double doors that had been halfway down the corridor when she started.

**There is something off about it, something that deals with the Shadow Realms.** he answered as she glanced down at the card again and than at him.

"What if you are just being too paranoid?" Yugi asked as his eyes narrowed at her questioning.

**Just do it; if you need it you can come back for it.** he hissed out as she looked around for the nearest pedestal, muttering to herself about the insanity of this whole thing, than stalked over to an expensive Ming vase that was resting on a marble pedestal about five feet from where she had been standing. She carefully grabbed the lip of the vase and lifted it up high enough to slip the card under, but as she was slipping the card beneath the vase she felt a familiar pain.

"What the hell is it with you people and trying to send me back there?" she snarled, eyes screwed up in pain as her arm trembled, trying to keep the vase raised a bit and not tip it over too far. The pain intensified as she fought against it, biting her bottom lip as a few tears escaped from the corners of her eyes and traveled down her cheeks. Concentrating on resisting took every bit of concentration and unknown power she had; it did not help that her fingers would not respond to her at all.

**My Hikari!** she heard Atemu shout in concern, she felt him his soul but not his touch as he joined the fight. Yugi knew her breathing had picked up and she felt her resistance weakening, despite the help. A moment later she felt both hot and cold, and than felt nothing.

Atemu took control of his Hikari's body out of desperation, pulling the card back and lettering the vase down. He was very confused about what just happened, that feeling was something he did not recall having ever witnessed or felt in all his millennia in the Shadow Realms as a sleeper. He glanced down at the card and seen that the blank card now had a picture of Yugi's silhouette, what little darkness she had, which confused him. With a deep breath he tucked that card into the front of the secondary deck and moved to the wall, wobbling a bit since his center of gravity was off a bit, and sat down against it.

He shut his eyes and let the body go slack, but not totally because it would not do well for any of Pegasus's cronies to think she was out for the count. He stepped into the gray corridor that connected their souls and seen the simple door to her soul room was cracked and partially open and showed a dimly lit room. He cautiously entered the soul room and seen that half of it was gone and half was still present, but what made him freeze was the fact that she was laying on her back and looked to be asleep with her left hand by her head and her right across her stomach. The distance between them had quickly been closed as he kneeled by her right side and checked her over for any physical changes, finding that her spirit was a bit cooler to the touch and that her skin was unnaturally pale while her lips were tinted blue like she was freezing. "My Hikari." He whispered, worried as she shifted a bit and slowly her eyes fluttered open and a shiver ran through her body.

"What happened?" she weakly whispered and brought her left hand up a bit, only to have her hand fall back to where it had been. He noted she looked rather lethargic and tired, but would not comment on that considering what happened.

"Someone tried to imprison your soul into that card using the Shadow Realms." Atemu answered as she frowned at that statement, why would they try to seal her soul into a card? She had been the one blackmailed into this!

"I figured that much, since you people have this sadistic glee with sending me there and every time it is involved I well like I am outside in the middle of winter without a heavy jacket!" Yugi hissed out in an annoyed tone, but he ignored her comment and focused on gently slipping his left arm beneath her neck and lifted her upper body up enough that he could shift to sit behind her, so that her head was resting on his shoulder and she was some what propped up. "But, I feel colder than the last few times. Is it because of what happened?"

"Possibly. This is unknown to me." He whispered in her ear as she pushed herself back to sit in his lap while his arms were loosely wrapped around her waist.

"If the Shadow Realms are involved, why am I… we… here?" Yugi asked with a confused look on her face, as he did not move.

"I would not let whoever is in control of the card imprison you, one part of your soul is in the card and you are here." Atemu answered as she frowned. "This is your body and this room is a representation of your soul, like the corridor represents the connection between us, and the other door is my soul."

"Can I still duel?" she asked him as he rested his chin on her left shoulder and was silent.

"I am unsure, I have never dealt with someone with only part of their soul." He answered honestly as she started to struggle to get out of his grip, but could not break it.

"I can't give up." She whispered, sounding determined to carry on, and looked towards the door was he dipped his head down and kissed the side of her neck.

"You will not, my Hikari, I will support you in this. Trust in me." He stated in a low, seductive purr as his right hand moved to cover her heart while his left was pressed against her cloth-covered navel. This caused her eyes to widen a bit and her body to stiffen at the touch, but she did not pull away from him "Let me in, let me into your soul. Please?" he whispered in her ear as she let her eyes slide shut at his breathy tone.

"I don't have any true reason not to trust you, do I?" she muttered, as he did not move. "Please, help me." She told him in consent as he than carefully maneuvered them both to their feet.

"This will not be individual, my Hikari, this will be a combination of myself and yourself." Atemu told her as they made their way to the doorway.

"Call the form Yugioh." Yugi stated as he picked her up bridal style, her arms coming up to encircle his neck while she buried her face into his neck and missed his curious look.

"Why that?" he asked as they crossed the threshold into the gray connection between them. "Yugi, since its my body, and 'oh' because this is definitely an 'oh shit' moment." Was her sarcastic reply before he began the process back into consciousness with the subtle blending of both minds and souls.

One of Pegasus's guards had come across her slumped over form, like Pegasus said would happen when he gave the clue in the middle of the duel against Kaiba. He crouched down in front of her and moved to grab her shoulders, only for her hands to shoot up and grab his wrists before he even touched her. The poor guard nearly jumped out of his skin as he quickly looked down at his wrists and than at the girl, who's head had raised from its bowed position to look him in the eyes and the man felt like he had met someone more dangerous than his boss. Her left eye was purple and her right eye was crimson in color and she had no expression on her face, but he looked down a bit farther and seen the golden puzzle that hung against her stomach was glittering in the artificial light of the corridor. "Troubles, sir?" she asked in a raspy tone as he fell back, her grip broken easily.

"No, ma'am." He got out as he got to his feet, looking around.

"I apologize, the trip here wore me out more than I expected." Yugioh replied and slowly got to her feet, wincing as several joints and bones popped as she did. He was trembling, waiting for her to lash out at him but all she did was give him a once over before losing interest. "Where would the dueling arena be?" she lazily asked as he pointed to the doors she had been standing across from before the incident. "Thank you." She added with a nod and than brushed past him to open the doors.

She entered to see that Anzu and her lackey Hiroto were present, sitting on a bench next to one another with Anzu's legs crossed and her nose in the air while her hands were folded in her lap and Hiroto fuming. Her mismatched eyes scanned those present and seen that there was something obviously going on between Hiroto and Jonouchi, at least from the glares they were sending one another, while Mai was standing by Jonouchi at the other end of the large balcony watching the tail end of Kaiba's duel. She silently shut the doors behind her as Bakura turned towards her, obviously the only one that heard the noise of the doors shutting, and when he seen her he paled like he had seen a ghost.

Out of curiosity, Yugioh inclined her head a bit and took note of the life points. The infamous dueler, having only been defeated by Yugi, was definitely losing horribly. "That is rather disheartening." She stated out of the blue, causing Mai to jump and Anzu to glare at her.

"What are you doing here, Motou?" Anzu snarled out as Yugioh shrugged and slipped her hands into her pockets. It was at this point that Kaiba was staring at her in shock and Pegasus's expression was a cross between shock, fear, and curiosity.

"Ten star chips, I get to compete." She simply answered and moved to stand by the railing of the balcony, so that she could take the time to look over the field a bit better and file away some tidbits of information since she would be dueling Pegasus at any coast. "What a really sadistic card to have." She commented to no one in particular with a low whistle, causing Ryou to jump a bit and look around like a spooked rabbit but she paid no attention to that. Anzu was now fuming with Hiroto while the blondes went back to watching the duel and the duelers shook off Yugioh's appearance.

"It looks like your threat was false." Kaiba told Pegasus with a glare as the other man grit his teeth.

"Her soul should have been sealed into that card they gave her!" Pegasus hissed to himself as his one good eye narrowed, first at the smug Kaiba and than when he turned to gaze at the teenage girl who should have been a lifeless husk. "It does not matter, Seto-chin, because you still lose this match." He stated in a louder, more smug tone before he launched his final attack from his new card called 'Toon World' and watched as Kaiba's life points were reduced to zero. "Which means you also lose something else." He added and shifted his hair away from the side of his face as two of his guards came up behind Kaiba and carried him away, like he just fainted after his loss.

"What a sore loser." Anzu stated as Ryou was staring at the smiling Pegasus.

"Welcome, finalists and guests!" the man jovially stated as he spread his arms out in welcome. "Allow me to be the first to congratulate you on making it this far. Before anything, the semi-final duels will begin tomorrow afternoon at noon and for now I would like for all of you to be shown to your rooms so you may freshen up for dinner, which will be served at 4:30 and you will be required to arrive at the dining hall at 4:00, and the drawing of letters to find out who will duel who in the first two matches."

When they had been shown to their rooms it had been ten in the morning, which gave plenty of time to take a shower and relax a bit. Yugioh had taken a shower, brushed and braided her hair, and changed into her leather attire in that time than began to modify her deck again while avoiding the soul card that was still in her possession. She felt restless and just wanted this whole ordeal to be finished at all costs, and that was something that scared a small part of her remaining soul and mind. At quarter till she tucked her main deck back into its holder, picked the Millennium Puzzle up from where she had placed it on the table by the large bed and slipped the band around her head and settled the puzzle against her stomach, and left the room without taking time to appreciate its lavish beauty.

The main dinner was only held for the four finalists— Mai, Anzu, Yugioh, and Jonouchi— in the main dining room while the other got to eat in the kitchen. Presently they took up the far end of the long, glossy, dark wood table with an empty seat at the head of the table for Pegasus with Yugioh and Jonouchi sitting to the left with Mai and Anzu to the right. The room had white walls with gold accents and red curtains and carpeting, but was bare of any other decoration. Three butlers entered with trays laden down with things while the maids moved around them and made their preparation to set the table resemble a dance. A white tablecloth was laid out as golden plates followed with red napkins and silverware that was arranged just so. Glasses followed as the butler's retreated only for a second wave to enter with glass pitchers of water.

"How could a screw up like you get this far?" Anzu sneered, directing her question at the two across from her while Mai picked up her water glass and decided now would be a good time to take a sip.

"The same could be said for yourself." Yugioh replied without even blinking, causing Jonouchi to snicker and Anzu to fume.

"Mazaki, there are always gonna be people better than you out there and it will always will be like that no matter how much ya' deny it, so shut up and quit prodding the dragon." Jonouchi stated as he crossed his arms and glared at the brunette who looked insulted. Mai wisely continued to stay out of the small feud that was indirectly being declared at the table, it was better to be an observer on this one but one thing did not add up. She stared at Yugioh, confused by the fact that no one else seemed to notice the changes.

For one, no person's eyes could change that drastically in under a few hours. Two, the warmth and personality that drew Mai to her were not there. For some reason all she did was sit and stare at her plate, looking rather apathetic about everything around her and she was just there. The last thing was that Mai was afraid of that dead look in the other's eyes, afraid of the fact that something in her demeanor changed and that the next duels would be brutal.

"At least I deserve to be here." The brunette stated as she placed a hand on her chest.

"The mentality of people I have seen, yes you fit in well. You walk, talk, and act like most of them." Yugioh replied with a tilt of the head, her expression looking a bit fond as she brought her right hand up to cover the yawn that soon followed her statement. Both blondes were confused to why Anzu took that as a compliment and started to primp herself with such an 'acknowledgement.'

"That wasn't a compliment." Mai deadpanned as the brunette's face suddenly twisted into an ugly expression of anger. "Don't start shrieking, I'm sure Pegasus would like his crystal intact." She added on with a glare as Anzu huffed and crossed her arms under her chest and glowered at them.

"How do you stand her?" Yugioh asked Jonouchi who rubbed the back of his head looking a bit embarrassed.

"Good question." He answered and got a glare from the brunette while the tri-color haired teenager raised both eyebrows in question. "I got a question for ya', Motou-san." He continued, the addition of the honorific getting a surprised look while Mai and Anzu were now locked in a glaring match, leaning towards her to whisper the question.

"Yes?" Yugioh prompted, leaning part of the way towards the embarrassed teenage boy.

"Can we trade some cards? I need to strengthen my deck and I understand if you…" he trailed off as she shrugged.

"No trouble." Yugioh replied as he looked surprised, but sat up again as Pegasus entered the room with his usual flourish. "Dinner and a show." She muttered picking up her glass of water and taking a sip as Pegasus sat down with a smile, nodding to his guests and sitting back in his chair as Yugioh sat her glass back down and the salad was brought in, which she passed over while the others accepted some.

"Down to business than." Pegasus jovially stated after the salad was done, the bowls taken away, and the soup was brought in. "The duels will be set up as A versus D, B versus C. The first duel will be at noon tomorrow and than each of the duels will be played in succession afterwards, since it will be hard to tell how long they will last." he stated as everyone had their spoons in hand, Yugioh had decided to stir her soup while Pegasus spoke, but Anzu already had a spoon full halfway to her mouth. A moment later she shrieked, dropping her spoon in her lap and causing everyone but Pegasus and the servants to jump in surprise. The other three finalists stared at her oddly after that while she continued to push her chair away from the table, until she ended up tipping the chair back.

That brought fresh rounds of shrieks, which made everyone cringe at their sheer pitch, while she scrambled out of the chair and away from the table. Jonouchi glanced down at his own soup and twitched while Mai and Yugioh glanced at him next and he pointed at the soup, which caused them to do the same. "Morbid." Mai stated wrinkling her nose as Yugioh fished the white and gold eye from her soup without batting an eye and held it in front of her.

"There is an eye in me soup." She stated in a snooty voice as the other two gave a weak laugh while Anzu was sitting against the wall trembling.

"_Corpse Bride_, good choice." Mai stated, trying to keep her tone from reflecting the fact that she found this means of drawing lots a bit disgusting, and than carefully used her spoon to fish out her own eye.

"Lack of options." Jonouchi dryly stated as he followed their example. "Doubt a cannibal joke would be good." Mai dropped her spoon at his statement as Yugioh carefully used her left hand to pick up the fake eye.

"Are you three finished?" Pegasus asked with a glare as Anzu was helped to her feet by a butler and led back to the table.

"Maybe." They stated in unison, causing him to twitch.

"Clarice! What are you doing here?" Jonouchi asked Yugioh in a mock British voice, causing Anzu to shriek and hold on to the butler. "Hey, it wasn't that bad!" he protested with a frown as Mai looked confused while she carefully sat the eye on the tablecloth before sitting her spoon down. After that she picked the eye up gain and delicately cracked it open by knocking it on the edge of the table a few times like it was an egg. Yugioh's reaction was to carefully sit her spoon on the napkin to the left of the plate so that she could cover her face with her hand, hoping that her palm covered the fact she could not hold back the smile. It was going to be an even longer weekend, it seemed.

"Lot B." Mai stated, breaking the tense atmosphere a bit as Jonouchi pulled his from his soup wile Yugioh cracked her fake eye open and the butler had Anzu sitting down and was pulling the eye from the soup for the brunette.

"Lot A." Yugioh stated as she sat the pieces on the table and patiently waited for the other two to announce which ones they got.

"Lot D." the butler announced for Anzu, who was calm by this point, and Jonouchi just dropped his on the table.

"I'll assume I'm Lot C, unless ya' messed up the lettering system." He stated as Yugioh cracked a small smile and Pegasus hid his annoyance behind his smile, but his one good eye betrayed his true feelings. He did not like the fact that they were mocking him, or the fact that Motou Yugi was still walking and talking and was not a shell! Everyone else had become a virtual living, breathing doll but no… she was acting like nothing happened. That Egyptian woman had told him that there were no mistakes, because mistakes would kill him and that would end everything so this was not a mistake.

"Than, the first duel tomorrow will be between Motou Yugi and Mazaki Anzu with the second duel between Kujaku Mai and Katsuya Jonouchi." Pegasus announced as he picked up his spoon and decided to finish the soup so that he may move on to the rest of his dinner.

"I am sure the rest of the dinner you have planned is as spectacular as you are, Pegasus-san." Yugioh stated as she carefully got up, pushing her seat back as she did so. "But, I don't have much of an appetite right now and I think I'm going to go relax before bed." She felt very uneasy as he stared at her, so she turned to the right and made to leave the dining hall as he continued to stare at her back.

"Hold up, Motou-san, I'll join ya'." Jonouchi stated as he did the same, but he was not as smooth as she was and had tripped once or twice as he tried to escape the space between the chair and table. The blonde boy caught up with her rather quickly, even proceeding to pull her out the doors while Anzu and Mai just looked a bit surprised.

"Oh dare he!" Anzu shrieked as Mai groaned and rubbed both temples while Pegasus grit his teeth and decided to finish dinner before he tried to crack the puzzle that was Motou Yugi.

Yugioh blinked a few times as Jonouchi was still dragging her, by her right hand, down the corridor to where the finalist rooms were. She could feel Atemu's increased annoyance at the teenage boy, probably for the fact that the position they were in looked rather interesting, and all she did was take in a few calming breathes and waited for the other to stop. "Katsuya-san, why are you pulling Motou-san along like that?" a voice asked as he came to a stop, causing her to stumble a bit at the fast pace to no pace. He let go of her hand, blushing a bit, while she brushed some imaginary dust or such from her leather attire.

She than glanced up and seen a smiling Bakura standing in front of them and it was a bit creepy. Jonouchi did not show any signs of discomfort, due to the fact that he was still rubbing the back of his neck and stuttering out an excuse, but she could see that the white haired teen had been up to something. **Only because he has that smug feeling.** Atemu muttered as Yugioh agreed.

"Someone looks like the cat-ate-the-canary." She commented with a weary look, but he looked a bit shocked. "What is going on?"

"Just heard the screams, thought something bad happened." Bakura covered, trying to look concerned, but failing miserably.

"Mazaki freaked out about the fake eye in the soup." Jonouchi answered with a shrug as Yugioh frowned when the white haired teen edged past them, hands behind his back. "Where's Hiroto?" he asked as Bakura stood straight, careful to keep his front to them as he backed down the hallway where they had just come from.

"Gorging himself in the kitchen, flirting with an uninterested maid." He answered as the blonde snickered at that mental image, causing the only girl among them to slap her forehead at the conversation. She would never understand the male species. "I need to find the bathroom, bye!" he abruptly added and quickly turned and ran from them.

"That was weird." Jonouchi commented as he pulled her hand away from her face.

"I know nothing, I see nothing." She declared and turned to head in the direction she had been pulled towards. "It is easier to deny everything." She muttered as he spun around and rushed to catch up with her.

"Why's that?" he asked as she sighed.

"Bakura-san is obviously doing something weird, so why get involved?" she asked him as he accepted this. "Why are you suddenly so buddy-buddy with me? Since junior high you have avoided me like the plague or made jibbing comments at me, but that was after you shacked up with Mazaki and her clone squad." She paused in front of the door to her room; turning the handle and pushing the door open as Jonouchi looked a bit nervous now.

"I realized that your earlier warnin' was true." He admitted and entered the room as she followed behind him, watching as he sat on the edge of the bed. Yugi moved around the bed to sit on the other edge of the bed, forcing him to turn and prop his right leg up on the edge of the bed while she bent over and pulled up her right pant leg to show the laces of her knee high boots.

"What brought on that epiphany? You had the same reaction Honda had when I said to drop her, disbelieving and annoyed that I dared to say something like that." Yugioh pressed as she slid the first boot off and worked on the other, still not turning towards him. Jonouchi sighed and pulled out his deck and sat it on the bed cover, biting his bottom lip as he thought about how to word his reply.

"It started when I won against Ryuuzaki, the Dinosaur guy that was one of the regional champions. She had lost a star chip to him and told me that I had no chance cause I was a novice and had a weak deck." He started off as she slid the second boot off and moved to sit in the middle of the bed, Indian style, and pulled both deck pouches from her belt and sitting them on the bed at her right. "She wasn't happy that I won that duel easily, got two star chips and the gauntlet out of it and shut the annoying idiot up. Since than she has been a bit hostile."

"Big surprise." She muttered picking up her secondary deck and taking it out of its pouch and plastic casing, making sure to be careful when she removed the once blank card that was at the front of that deck. That card was than sat beside her main deck, since it would not be good to lose it. He shifted as an awkward silence fell between them, but she was focused on going through her secondary deck and occasionally laying down cards he could possibly use. "Define 'hostile.'" It was with that statement that he busied himself with searching out some cards to trade her, hoping she would take it easy on him.

"How she acts to you— biting comments, sneers, nose in the air. Hiroto isn't helping matters cause he always takes her side." He admitted as she sat her secondary deck down and picked up the cards she left out of it. "Some friend he is." Jonouchi added under his breath and handed her a few cards off the bat, rather weak ones to his annoyance and her amusement.

"How about I strike a deal with you." Yuigoh stated as she sat the cards he handed her on the bedspread and handed him the ones she picked out of her secondary deck. "If that is the best you have to trade, I'd be on the losing end of this and we are not friends or even close enough to warrant a free handout." She continued as he glared at her, obviously offended at the phrase 'free handout' but she held a hand up to pacify his anger. "How about we work out a payment plan. I give you these cards on credit and you work off how much they would be at my Grandpa's shop as a part-time clerk and stock boy."

"Whaa." He got out and stared at her like she had grown a second head, cards falling from his limp fingers.

"Part-time job, work off the cost of those cards. Maybe pick up some tricks and new cards from the weekly shipments, as long as you pay for them or whatever Grandpa decides since he owns the shop." She slowly stated, as if talking to a child, thinking she had broken him. He suddenly lurked forward and hugged her, causing her to freeze up in surprise, but he drew back quickly and gathered the cards she sat down and the ones he dropped.

"Really?" he excitedly asked and flipped through the ones she had handed him.

"Might as well, we could use an extra set of hands and your heart is in the right place." Yugioh stated with a shrug, twitching a bit at the memory of the unwanted hug, confused to why Atemu was not pulling his usual possessive gestures. "That dragon that is in with those cards best be kept in good shape or else I'll make you regret it." She threatened with a glare as he nodded and sprinted from her room.

**That was a nice gesture.** Atemu commented as she shrugged and slipped her secondary deck back into its holder and pouch before she got up to close the door of her room and lock it.

"Why didn't you attack him? It seems like every other time someone touches and/or attempts to hug me in any way you go territorial." She commented as he shrugged.

**He had no intentions of wooing you. Kaiba did so, when I first encountered him, and he maybe possibly still have intentions of pursuing you.** he answered, arms crossed and nose in the air as she looked a bit skeptical, but dropped the subject. The blonde teen had been a throne in her side for a while, and the hug was a spur of the moment thank you for not slapping him in the face in any way, so she decided to chalk it up to a fluke. **Why help someone you will probably duel?**

"Everyone deserves a chance, especially in this crazy escapade. It helps that, as I stated on the boat, his heart is in the right place and that is all that counts as far as I am concerned." she told him while leaning against the door. "Not to mention it'll piss Mazaki off when he progresses farther than her in the finals." She added pushing away from the door and approaching the bed, pulling the Millennium Puzzle up over her head and tossing it on to the pillows at the head of the bed, and than fell face first into the cover while ignoring the decks and soul cards that were near the pillow.

**How do you know he will get farther that she does?** he asked while appearing in his spirit form on the bed, running his fingers through her hair as she turned her head so that she could stare at him.

"Its just a strong feeling I have." She muttered as he smiled fondly down at her. "Just like I had to give him the Red-Eyes Black Dragon card, which I never used before and has been collecting dust in my deck, as well as the few other cards I had duplicates of."

**Fate?** he asked curiously, looking a bit perplexed by what she was implying to him, watching as she closed her eyes and let out a sigh.

"Maybe." She muttered and got to her knees, pulling away from his touch and staring out the balcony doors that were opposite of the door into the room. "I'm going to change for bed and turn in early." With that she grabbed her messenger bag and made her way into the bathroom that connected to the room, shutting the door behind her.

That night her sleep was troubled and this caused Atemu to stay in spirit form, sitting on the edge of the bed watching her sleep with a sad look. He reached out with his left hand and ran his fingers through her hair, watching her relax a bit at the touch. She than started to plead in ancient Egyptian, making his eyes widen and his left hand freeze with his fingers against her right cheek and his thumb resting against her jaw line. He drew his hand back as her eyes snapped open and she bolted up right, holding the sheets to her chest and her hair disheveled. "What's happening to me?" she whispered dropping the sheets to bring both hands to her face as he moved to sit behind her.

**Dreams?** he asked slipping his arms around her tense shoulders and pulling her back against his spiritual body, but she did not relax.

"If that was a dream, than it was a horrible nightmare." She told him, shivering with the after effects of what she had witnessed, as he lightly stroked her cheeks with his fingertips but she still did not relax. "I seen my death, I think. It was a bright day and I was in the desert, but I was dressed in something out of _The Mummy_. There was a shouting match between the psycho that had a blade to my stomach and someone that looked just like you, but why a blade to my stomach?" she asked as he froze, but she did not realize how her recounting of events was effecting him. "She stabbed me there, I went to the ground, and she was on me again and stabbed…" she trailed off as he pulled her into a tight hug, silencing her by pressed her face into the crook of his neck.

**A nightmare, that was all it was, nothing more.** he told her as she shivered at his determined tone, but did not argue. After a few moments his grip slackened and she carefully pulled back from his slack grip so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed. Atemu let his arms drop as he stared at her back.

"Before I woke up, the last face I seen resembled yours and I felt like I would never be happy again."

* * *


	11. SEMIFINALS

**F. THE SEMI-FINALS**

_Dream this moment as you run away  
You would know me separate me from what I believe  
This moment in brutality  
You're the one who kept on pushing till I made you play_

Now you know the answers  
Save yourself from danger  
I cannot forget how  
All of this began  
I know you know the answer  
Save yourself from danger  
Beaten by a stranger  
Blood still on his hands

"_This Moment"_ from the soundtrack "Transformers"

* * *

Thanks to the nightmares, Yugioh did not get much sleep and Atemu had retreated to his soul room due to the nature of the nightmares she had. They were too close to something he knew happened but he could not place. This led to her aimless wondering around the castle to pass the many hours till anything would happen, eventually she had ran into a giddy Ryou at least three times in three different places before returning to her room. After that she had pulled out her last set of clean clothes, another pair of jeans only this set had no knees, and another black shirt that declared on the front 'I have gone to find myself, if I get back before I return keep me here' on the front in white lettering and left her room for the second time. **It seems the Thief is having a good night.** Atemu idly commented after they entered the dining hall at eleven-forty that morning-into-afternoon, where everyone had already gathered. Ryou was still grinning as he held a cup of tea up to her in a mock toast to something she did not want to know.

"You look like death warmed over." Mai commented as Yugioh glared at her.

"Nightmares." She stated simply and sat down by the blonde woman as a butler brought in a plate of food and a maid came over with a tray of glasses. "Black coffee, strong enough to eat the spoon." She remarked as the woman looked confused, but picked up a saucer with a mug on it and sat it down to the right side of the plate of food before scurrying off.

"This will be easy for me since Motou here probably can't duel her way out of a paper bag." Anzu boasted in answer to a question that Hiroto had asked her, this caused Jonouchi to start coughing, having accidentally snorted orange juice up his nose after she said that. Now he was entertaining everyone with his attempt to stave off the tears in his eyes from the burning in his nostrils.

"Careful, Mazaki-san, last time you made Motou-san mad you were trembling for the whole day and rather paranoid." Ryou stated in a mock concerned tone as Anzu glared at him, but it did not faze him at all. If anything he seemed to be grinning wider, but covered that by slumping in his chair and bringing his teacup up to his mouth. "From the looks of Motou-san now I would bet she is like cat that got a bath."

"How the hell can you be so bright when I know you were lurking around a few corners throughout the night?" Yugioh growled out as she picked up the coffee and took a tentative sip, wincing and sitting the mug down as she forced herself to swallow. "Decaf?" she asked as the maid nodded.

"Pegasus-sama does not like regular coffee." The woman replied as Yugioh twitched and glared at the food in front of her and the coffee.

"Nothing but black water." Was the tri-color haired teen's response as Ryou was still smiling and she had the sudden urge to see how many teeth he could lose from catching a plate with his face... Sitting back she started to debate when she became so violent…

"Eight or nine sugars in his tea, hard to believe that it is still liquid." Mai commented as Ryou picked up his teacup and held it protectively to his chest and glared at everyone.

"Good afternoon!" Pegasus declared as he entered the dining hall with his usual flourish and received two smiles (Ryou and Anzu, for different reasons), two indifferent stares (Jonouchi and Mai), a nervous look (Hiroto), and one glare that made him repress the urge to shiver and make sure he was not being targeted for an assassination (Yugioh). "If you will follow me, we will begin the first duel of the semi-finals." He added as everyone started to file out of the dining hall.

It took only five minutes for Yugioh and Anzu to make it to the platforms and the small audience to their respective observation points. Both teenage girls shuffled their decks before sitting them down and drawing their cards. "You may begin." Pegasus declared lazily, like he was an Emperor observing a gladiator match. "Anzu will go first since Yugi-chin drew Lot A."

"Come on Anzu!" Hiroto shouted while the others were silent, with the exception of Ryou who had snuck off yet again to continue whatever he had been doing. Anzu went first, drawing a card and placing one face down.

"Ready to lose, Motou?" she sneered as the tri-colored haired teen drew her card, placed it in her hand, and sat a card face-down without saying a word. If anything her silence spoke volumes, especially considering her mentality at the late breakfast she had shown up to. The brunette drew a card and put that card down face-up in attack mode. A red haired woman in a purple robe with blue horns appeared on the field, between the fingers of her left hand were senbon and green crystals between the fingers of her left hand— the Queen's Double, attack 350 and defense of 300. "Attack her life points!" Anzu proudly declared as the green crystals were released past the face down card, dropping the 5000 life points to 4650.

"Good one!" Hiroto stated as he waved his arms around like a lunatic, but Mai and Jonouchi were wondering what Yugioh was up to. Said dueler drew a card and than placed that one face down and ended her turn. Anzu than drew a card, but placed nothing down and attacked Yugioh's life points again, dropping them to 4300and bringing about another round of gloating and cheering from Hiroto.

"She could beat Panik but isn't making a move on Anzu's weak ass Queen's Double?" Jonouchi deadpanned as Yugioh drew another card, placed it in the middle of her card fan and than pulled another from the left side and placed it face down and ended her turn. Anzu drew a card and repeated her previous two turns, bringing Yugioh's life points to 3950.

"I knew you were all talk and no show." Anzu stated happily as her opponent drew a card and placed it face up in attack mode. It was than blonde man in armor welding a sword appeared, Neo the Magic Swordsman with an attack of 1700 and defense of 1000.

"Attack her Queen's Double." Yugioh stated as the swordsman darted forward and slashed the petrified woman, sending her to the graveyard and knocking Anzu's life points down 1350 to 3650.

"I will still win." The brunette stubbornly stated and drew a card, only to grin as she placed it on the field face up and two familiar elves appeared— the Gemini Elves with an attack of 1900. "Attack her pathetic Swordsman!" she bellowed as the two elves double teamed the swordsman and effectively took him, and 200 life points, out. Yugioh was now down to 3750.

"Let's end this." Yugioh snapped as she drew a card and placed it in her hand without looking at it. She pulled a card out and put it down in the second row. "I activate Dark Hole." She stated as the Gemini Elf and the face down card was eliminated as well as Yugioh's own defenses. "Next I summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon." She added sitting the card down and the majestic white dragon appeared before them, Anzu's face paling. "Now I activate Monster Reborn and bring back the Mystic Elf from the card graveyard in attack mode." With that the Mystic Elf appeared with her hands out stretched before her, ready to attack.

"No!" Anzu shrieked as Yugioh smirked.

"Direct attack from Blue-Eyes White Dragon and direct attack from Mystic Elf." The tri-color haired teen stated smugly as Anzu's life points hit zero. "As you were saying?"

"Oh snap!" Jonouchi stated with a dropped jaw as Mai shivered and Hiroto just stared. That was the first time they seen such a brutal duel from someone that had been rather nice, if not a bit reserved, in her dueling style.

"Winner, Motou Yugi." Pegasus stated with a frown as the brunette looked rather broken. "Will the next set of duelers please make their way to the platforms?" He added as Yugioh was already off of her platform and flipping through her main deck, passing Mai on her way and whispering something to the blonde before continuing on. The blonde woman was now laughing about whatever was said while the teen settled on a bench in the observation balcony and Anzu was crying as she ran through there for her room while Hiroto finally snapped out of his frozen state and followed her.

Yugioh found a bench against the wall of the observation deck and sat down so that she could remove a few cards from her main deck so that she could replace them with something that was more her style and oriented to her deck, not to mention potentially useful. Sitting her main deck on the bench she pulled out her secondary deck and added them to the back of the deck before flipping through to replace the six cards she removed. Occasionally she would glance up at the present duel, only to find that both were laying down the foundations of their defense and feeling out one another's strategy, but something would snap soon and the true duel would take shape.

Two turns later, they were still staring one another down and waiting. Yugioh slipped both decks back into their respective pouches and decided to go off and explore, hoping to not get too held up with anything. Silently she got up and slipped out the doors of the observation deck and into the deserted hallway, looking around for any other person. Letting out a sigh she went to her left and started to inspect the artifacts he had out. "Don't bother, they are all fake." A voice stated as she glanced up to turned her head to the right to see Ryou there, still grinning.

"You are starting to creep me out, Ryou-san." Yugioh stated as he shrugged. "What are you up to? For at least one whole day you have been obscenely happy and always grinning like the Cheshire Cat in _Alice in Wonderland_ without the LSD." That got a chuckle from him as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Exploring, stealing what isn't nailed down, indulging in a few Robin Hood-esque deals." He replied flippantly as she crossed her arms and leaned all her weight on to her left leg.

"Robin Hood was noble, he stole from the high class to give to the poverty stricken lower class. I hardly believe your goals are so noble." She deadpanned as he pouted and clasped both hands in front of him, looking incredibly feminine with his eyes suddenly going round with disbelief and hurt.

"How can you wound me so?" he asked with a trembling lip, looking ready to cry but this did not affect Yugioh, if anything she took a step back and uncrossed her arms. Again she twitched and glanced around for an escape route from the psycho in front of her.

"Easily, you are creepy with an gender identify issue." She replied as he paused.

"Gender identity issue?" Ryou echoed as she nodded, relaxing a bit when she realized he stopped his odd act.

"Could always call it an 'Anzu Moment' if you want to truly be insulted." She commented as he shivered, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head to dispel that comment and the image that came with it. "What **_are_** you up to?" she pressed as he struck a thinking pose, another words his left hand covered his mouth as he titled his head back a bit and stared at the ceiling.

"Knocking Pegasus's guards off to a more manageable number, stealing the gold and other valuables in his private collection and rooms, and searching for where Kaiba is since he hasn't been seen since his duel with Pegasus." He answered as Yugioh blinked, absorbing what he said and mentally weighing the validity of what he said.

"That's all?" she asked as he looked at her oddly, as if not expecting the lack of reaction.

"Yes." He slowly answered as she shrugged. "I'm sealing their souls into dolls or banishing them to the Shadow Realm by summoning the Man-Eater Bug, therefore mentally terrorizing them before ripping their souls from them. It has been rather fun…" he trailed off as seen no change in her reaction as he honestly told her his plans.

"I hope that goes well, but why are you searching for Kaiba?" was her next question as he twitched and was looking a bit annoyed.

"I just admitted that I am basically killing people and all you can ask is why I am searching for Kaiba?" he demanded storming towards her, stopping when they stood toe to toe and eye to eye. "Doesn't that just bother you a little bit?" She blinked a few times and shrugged.

"It should, but I can't bring myself to really care." Yugioh honestly stated as he relaxed a bit, shaking his head at her answer and the fact her face did not betray any attempt to cover her true feelings. At this point she was chalking her indifference up to the lack of a full soul and that the half that was left over as merged with Atemu's, and she knew he did not care at all. "Did you find him?"

"Yes, but you already know what happened to him." Ryou stated and took a few steps back from her, noting the fact that she looked very annoyed now. "Are you going to beat Pegasus?" he asked as she bared her teeth in a feral smile.

"Too much is riding on that to lose." She gritted out and turned to head back to the observation deck.

"Do you know how he does what he does?" the white haired teen asked as she froze, face going blank as her hands clenched into fists but Ryou pressed on despite noting that. "He took something that he shouldn't have, didn't he?"

"Why should I tell you?" she hissed out and turned to him, eyes narrowed and teeth bared as the holder of the Millennium Ring felt uneasy with that anger directed at him.

"The changes in your looks, the fact you are competing when you seem to be a recreational gamer." He quickly answered with his hands in front of him, the international sign of peace or surrender. "The fact that you are carrying something that feels like the work of the Millennium Eye." If anything she looked more suspicious after he said this, so Zuka forced himself into control of the body while Ryou was shoved into the back of his own mind.

"He tried to take your soul, didn't he?" Zuka asked, his voice a bit deeper than Ryou's calm and slightly accented one. "Is that why you are so out of it?"

"What business is it to you?" she hissed out as the Eye of Ra started to appear on her forehead, the black lines a stark contrast to her pale skin. This was Zuka's only warning and he would take it because he knew that, in his present, he was not ready to face the pharaoh, who had recovered practically all of his abilities by this point. Than the lines disappeared as she relaxed a bit, for some unknown reason, but she was frowning. "No, that doesn't matter. What about this Millennium Eye you mentioned?" she asked in a calm tone as he let out the breath he had been holding.

"Does the Pharaoh not remember?" he teased as she stared blankly at him for a moment.

"Bakura, Thief King, or whoever the hell you are." She gritted out and slowly stalked towards him as he took a few steps back away from her. He may be a bad ass, a bit homicidal and a kleptomaniac when it came to things that sparkled and had a value, but messing with the Pharaoh's power still scared him. What little he remembered of his last days before the Sealing still gave him nightmares.

"The Eye allows the possessor to see into another person's mind, much like the Millennium Key only not as potentially dangerous." Zuka quickly explained, waving his hands in front of him as she stopped her advance and looked smug at scaring him. "Also, where I can summon certain creatures to remove souls or occasionally put said souls into dolls, the Eye can remove souls to other objects." He added as she closed her eyes and brought both hands up to rub her temples.

"That will be useful for when I face him." Yugioh muttered as he relaxed again, she let her hands drop and looked him in the eye. Zuka's power gave out and Ryou was back in control, shaking his head a few times to reorient himself while she laughed at his sudden antics. "You were there for Kaiba's duel?"

"Yes, I remember Pegasus saying something about taking away the last thing he treasured before removing Kaiba himself." Ryou stated, seeing no reason to try and make an excuse.

"Going off of what you just told me he did try to take my soul, but something happened and only half my soul was put into the card." She told him as his eyes widened in shock. "I'll leave the rest for you to puzzle out." With that she turned on her heel again and made for the doors to the observation deck, having already spent enough time away from the finals.

She quickly opened the door to the deck and entered, quietly shutting it behind her and watched as Mai's life points hit zero but she did not look broken up. Moving forward to lean over the railing, she noted that the blonde woman actually looked rather proud that she lost and Jonouchi looked like he was rather confused by her reaction. "You did rather well, for an amateur." Mai stated as she gathered her cards up and kept her head held high. "But, where did you get Time Wizard and the Black Dragon?" she asked glancing over at Yugioh, who looked away from her so that she would not see the smile.

"I sold my soul." He joked as Mai left her podium and paused when she reached Yugioh.

"Careful, Yugi, whoever gave him those cards opened up a can of worms. He has improved." The blonde woman stated as the tri-colored haired teen arched an eyebrow in question and tilted her head to the side. "Sorry we couldn't duel this time around, but maybe later… when I drag you out to improve your lacking wardrobe." Yugioh blinked a few times and stood straight up while Pegasus watched them.

"When did I agree to that?" she asked as Mai laughed, bringing her left hand up to her mouth as she did so.

"You didn't, but it gives me a reason to find you when this is over and challenge you!" she loudly declared and walked past the teenager and took a seat on the bench as Yugioh resigned herself to the fact she had to duel now and made her way to the dueling podium she had been at earlier that morning.

"I don't want to go shopping!" Yugioh whined as she stopped at the console and pouted. Jonouchi slapped his forehead as she pulled out her main deck and started to shuffle it. Pegasus let out a laugh and she glared at him for doing so.

"Go ahead and begin." Pegasus stated waving a hand in dismissal as both flipped through their decks and removed several cards to sit above their main deck and than both duelers drew their opening cards.

"Those cards really helped out, Motou-san." Jonouchi stated as he looked over the hand he drew just as Yugioh finished up her organizing and drew a card. "Makes me wonder why I was a jackass for annoying you for the last few years." He added with a dejected sigh as Anzu came back in, making her appearance by slamming open the doors and approaching the observation deck railing with her nose in the air and a love-sick Hiroto following her.

"Now that's an answer and a half." She replied with a laugh as he smirked as she sat a card facedown in defense. He drew a card and grinned.

"I summon the Black Knight." He declared as a tall, all black metal with silver metal accents appeared on his side of the field, looking much like a video game character. This was Gearfried the Iron Knight, attack 1800 and defense 1600, but the reference was not lost on Yugioh. Anzu and Hiroto both groaned and got ready to shout something when Yugioh snickered.

"Curses, the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch can't take him out." She remarked with a pout as two heads swiveled so they could stare at her while Pegasus frowned and looked annoyed again. Jonouchi was silent as he also stared at her in shock that was the first time anyone ever responded to one of his comments!

"Oh no." Hiroto stated, looking rather pale.

"Have at you!" he added as the black knight attacked the face down card, causing it to go face up and the knight to go backwards with 200 points of damage, bringing Jonouchi's life points to 4800. Sitting with a harp was a yellow, hooded robed man or woman that had some green hair poking out from beneath the hood and contently plucking the strings, content in the fact that its attack was 800 and defense was 2000.

"You're indeed a brave knight, but the fight is mine." Yugioh stated as the teen laughed.

"I've had worse." He added as she drew a card.

"Sorry, but I think Harpo appreciates being the tops this time." She added as Anzu was fuming.

"Katsuya Jonouchi! How dare you start your stupid conversations again!" she shrieked as the blonde teen rolled his eyes and waited for Yugioh to make a move. "And you, Motou! How dare you…"

"I wonder if we can send her in a crate marked for Abu Dhabi." Yugioh stated with a calculating look as Jonouchi and Mai laughed.

"That requires her bein' cute as a kitten, they'd probably send her back." Jonouchi answered as Anzu continued her rant. During her rant, Yugioh decided to break her usual dueling tactics and actually laid a card face up in attack mode and than added two magic/spell/trap cards below them. To the left of the Spirit of the Harp a fierce knight in blue armor accented with red lines appeared on a purple steed with two red lances in both hands, Gaia the Fierce Knight with 2300 attack and 2100 defense. "Monty Python again?" he asked as she shrugged.

"Nah, something simple." Yugioh replied with a grin as she did a typical call for charge. "Charge!" she shouted afterwards as Gaia attacked the Iron Knight, dealing 500 in damage and taking Jonouchi's life points down to 4300.

"It reminds me of the hunt." He replied in a very bad attempt at a British accent, despite the fact he was down in the life points, and drew a card.

"I think that would work out better if Bakura said it, the true British accent and all." Yugioh commented as he grinned and put a card, face down in defense mode and than laid a single magic/spell/trap card down.

"Are you both sure your not friends?" Mai asked with a laugh as both glanced at her oddly, than Yugioh turned back to her hand and drew a card.

"I hear nothing!" Yugioh stated as Jonouchi thought about that one.

"Schultz!" he stated in a whiny tone as everyone stared at him and his opponent to laugh.

"They are both nuts." Anzu muttered as Yugioh put a card face down in the field and tapped one of her magic cards, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"I probably should not have done that." Yugioh stated with a frown and ended her turn as Jonouchi drew a card.

"I activate my spell card, Shield and Sword, switching the attack and defense of the only two face-up monsters at activation." He stated proudly and than put down a second card in attack mode and a black dragon appeared on the field, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon with an attack of 2400 and defense of 2000. "Attack Sr. Robin!" he added as the dragon took out the knight and 300 of Yugioh's life points leaning her with 4700.

"Too bad the minstrels had been eaten, some music would be nice." Yugioh remarked with a sigh of defeat as the effect of his spell card wore off and she drew a card as both eyebrows rose in surprise. She tucked that card into her hand than pulled a different one from the fan and put it down by her other two spell/magic/trap cards and white swords formed a barrier between the two fields. Than she put down Curse of Dragon in attack mode and the small gold dragon appeared by the Spirit of the Harp.

"That makes thing harder." Jonouchi commented as he drew a card and than put that card face down and ended his turn with a sour look. "Too bad I can't equip any of them with a mirror."

"That would be interesting." Yugioh commented and drew a card and than put that down by the Swords of Revealing Light. "I activate Monster Reborn and bring back Gaia the Fierce Knight in attack mode." She stated as the knight and purple horse reappeared on the field. "Now, I play Polymerization." She stated happily and pulled a card from the far right of her hand and put that down where Monster Reborn had been. "This fuses Gaia the Fierce Knight and Curse of Dragon and summons Gaia the Dragon Champion." All that happened was the horse was gone and Gaia jumped on to the back of the Curse of Dragon, both now having the attack of 2600 and defense of 2100.

"Talk about your upgrade." Jonouchi muttered with a frown.

"Attack his Red-Eyes Black Dragon." Yugioh stated as the Dragon Champion swooped through the swords barrier and rammed his lance through the black dragon, sending it to the graveyard and delivering 200 points in damage— Jonouchi's life points was now at 4100.

"This duel is taking forever!" Hiroto whined as Mai snorted.

"Your friend had some brains hiding under that annoying exterior, of course it would take longer." Mai snapped as Anzu crossed her arms. "Plus, I think Motou's having some fun in this." With that Yugioh ended her turn as Jonouchi was now sweating bullets as he drew his next card, their banter having worn off a while ago.

"I activate Raigeki." He declared proudly and put the card down, which took out all of Yugioh's monsters. Luckily it was only the second turn since she activated the Swords of Revealing Light. Now I play one card face down in defense and end my turn." He stated as she drew a card and looked over her hand. She still had her two-magic/spell/trap cards and that would save her at least once.

"I play Dark Magician in attack mode." She stated as the magician in dark purple armor appeared on the field, looking rather regal this time around. "My turn is done for, not brave enough to take that risk." She stated as Jonouchi nodded his head several times, looking much like a bobble head, while the rest waited for them to actually do something interesting. He drew a card and grinned.

"I am going to take a leaf from your book, Motou-san, and play Swords of Revealing Light." He proudly stated as he slapped the card down and another barrier of swords appeared. Than I am going to play Baby Dragon in attack mode and end my turn." With that he put said card down as a small, cute orange dragon appeared on the field with a yawn.

"Careful, Motou! He's hoping to draw the Time Wizard!" Mai shouted as Hiroto was now cheering Jounochi on while the tri-colored haired teen just drew a card calmly and looked it over before placing it on the field, face down in defense mode and ending her turn. Secretly, Yugioh hoped he drew that card because it would work both ways and he did not even know it yet.

The next two turns went quickly, Yugioh playing no other cards and Jonouchi getting a bit desperate. As the Swords of Revealing Light broke with him drawing a card on the fourth turn since their activation, he let out a whoop of happiness and placed a card down in attack mode and a clock wearing a cape with a staff appeared. "Time Wizard, activate your spell ability of Time Roulette." Jonouchi stated happily as the hand on the clock face started to spin and someone was humming "Time Warp."

"You don't seem the type." Mai commented as Yugioh snickered.

"It was weird and amusing to watch, couldn't resist." She stated with a blush as Pegasus twitched. This duel was not going how he hoped! A ping was heard as the hand stopped, only for Baby Dragon to age and gain size as well as wrinkles that made it the Thousand Dragon, attack 2400 and defense 2000. Attention was than turned to Yugioh's side of the field as her one card was sent to the card graveyard and the Dark Magician had changed into an old man that was floating above the field with his staff across his lap. "Wicked, never summoned the Dark Sage before." She stated in awe as Jonouchi groaned, the Dark Sage had an attack of 2800 and defense of 3200.

"Drats, foiled again!" he stated with a whimper of pain and ended his turn by putting down a magic/trap/spell card. His opponent drew a card and seemed to be thinking about something.

"I equip the Dark Sage with Book of Secret Arts, raising his attack and defense by 300 to 3100 and 3500 respectively." She stated putting the card down as Jonouchi twitched. "Than I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and take out your magic card." With that done his last line of defense was gone. "Than I play Change of Heart." She added flipping over the second magic card as the cards fell from his hand.

"I bet you are good at poker." He commented as she took over Thousand Dragon and left him wide open. "I forfeit in the face of my demise, I apologize for trying to escape." He added rising both hands up while she grinned.

"When will you learn? No one ever escapes from Stalag 13! Never!" she stated as both burst into laughter.

"Winner of Duelist Kingdom, Motou Yugi and the prize of three million American dollars." Pegasus stated with a bit of distaste as she smiled and bowed. "Second place goes to Katsuya Jonouchi, with a prize of three hundred thousand American dollars." He added as Jonouchi stared at him with an open mouth.

"Sweet!" he stated with a cheer as Anzu's dour expression perked up at the mention of the money Jonouchi won.

"There will be a prize of thirty thousand American dollars for the third place winner, which is the duel between Mazaki Anzu and Kujaku Mai that will take place before my duel with Yugi-chin." He stated as both Yugioh and Jonouchi left their podiums and met up on the observation deck, after passing the two female duelers, and shook hands.

"I hope to duel you a few more times, Katsuya, that was fun." She stated as the blonde boy snorted.

"You know American TV shows and movies and you have the best luck I've seen." He stated as she shrugged. "I do apologize for the grief I've caused you."

"Past is past, but I still don't consider you a friend." She stated with narrowed eyes as he laughed, glancing over her shoulder at the scowling Hiroto.

"If you did I would be worried." Jonouchi stated as he walked past her towards Hiroto. "How about I meet ya' Grandpa on Wednesday to arrange an agreement?"

"That'll work, but if you don't show up I'll make you regret it." She stated in a serious tone as he shivered at the implied threat.

* * *

**A/N:** If the rules are right, to get Thousand Dragon a Polymerization card would be needed when Time Wizard and baby Dragon are on the field, not Time Wizard's effect. In this, we'll go with the Anime version only because it never happens afterwards. Possibly the "Dues Ex Machina" clause because I already rewrote too many of the duels. Also, all the references are not mine:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail  
Garfield  
Hogan's Heroes  
Rocky Horror Picture Show

There are probably others, but I can't remember them. Which is bad on my part.

Thanks to all that reviewed, I know I have not addressed them in awhile.

**Rewrite Completed: **Tuesday, 03 June 2008  
**Beta-d:** S2teennovelist


	12. THE EYE VERSUS THE PUZZLE

A warning, before reading further, the beginning of this chapter is a bit boring.

* * *

**G. THE EYE VERSUS THE PUZZLE**

_The shadow that you see  
(you better pray your soul to keep)  
the truth behind you eyes  
your darkest little lies_

_I won't back down  
I will not bow  
I've come to bring you hell  
And I can't forget things you did_

_All the scars that never heal  
All the wounds that will not seal  
I will not forget the days  
Theses memories never fall_

_Bring You to Hell_, Fuel from the album "Daredevil"

* * *

The duel between Mai and Anzu was just sad; Mai had strung the proud brunette on and crushed her with Harpy's Pet Dragon with three Harpy's Ladies to boost its power and Harpy's Brother. It had taken a couple of turns to set everything up, and to ignore the comments that Yugioh and Jonouchi mad. "Thanks for the running commentary." Mai stated with a snicker as Anzu growled and stomped off with Hiroto following her like a lost puppy.

"No trouble." Jonouchi stated happily, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet as Mai pocketed her check of thirty thousand.

"Yugi-chan." Mai purred out as the tri-color haired teen stood straight up as the blonde woman grinned. "Next Saturday, I am going to look through your wardrobe and we are definitely going to go shopping. Than I'll introduce you to my boyfriend!" with that she smiled, winked, and leaned on the railing to Yugioh's other side.

"Congrats, Motou-san, you just made a friend!" he stated as she glared at him for the comment, but all he did was laugh at her disgruntled look.

"Now Maximillion Pegasus versus Motou Yugi." The bodyguard to Pegasus announced as she noted that Pegasus did not make his way to either platform, he stayed in his seat with that smile that just made a person itch to knock it off of his face. "Instead of using the larger dueling arenas, Mr. Pegasus has opted to use a smaller version of this technology set up in the next dueling room."

"Will we be able to watch?" Mai asked as Pegasus got to his feet.

"Only one may be invited in to watch, this will be a private duel." He stated as the two blondes frowned.

"Wonder what is reason is for that?" a familiar voice asked as both blondes jumped and turned towards Ryou, who had just slipped on to the observation deck, while Yugioh sighed and stood straight up.

"How about it, Bakura-san?" she asked as he tilted his head to the side in surprise.

"Why him?" Mai asked as Yugioh than stretched her arms up over her head and winced when a few joints popped, causing Jonouchi to shiver at the sounds.

"Trust me on the decision, Kujaku-san." The tri-color haired girl replied with a smile. "I know what I am doing." She added as one of Pegasus's bodyguards opened the doors of the observation deck and motioned for her to follow, which she did as Ryou fell into step beside her.

The doors to the deck closed behind them as Ryou glanced at Yugioh, who had taken to fixing the bun in her hair as they walked. "Why me?" he asked as she snorted.

"You told me about what would happen, I figure that he is taking this behind closed doors for a reason." Yugioh replied as she let her arms drop to her side and the white haired teen bit his lip. She was implying the possibility of a Shadow Game, which was bad in her present state. He pulled his deck out and quickly flipped through the cards in search of his favorite card, which he than pulled from the deck and than put his cards together and back in his pocket.

"Here." He stated handing her the 'Change of Heart' card as she paused in walking as did he, the guard realized he had lost his tail and stopped six feet from them and silently watched the exchange. "You might need this, just in case." She accepted the card as Ryou nodded and both started to walk again, but Yugioh made sure to slip the card into the middle of her main deck.

"I hope I do not have to use it, but thank you." She replied in an honest, relieved tone as they made it to the doors at the end of the corridor. Yugioh steeled her nerves against what ever would happen, but the presence of Ryou in her deck was comforting. It meant that if they were pulled into a Shadow Duel, Atemu would have a second choice of someone to guard his deck if she could not due to her state. What she did not know was that Ryou's decision to give her that card would, if a Shadow Games did get declared, allow Zuka to wonder about freely.

In the end, that really did not matter.

The bodyguard opened the door to show a dark room that had lights on a smaller version of the dueling arena, which was the size of a large dining table, not as grand in size as the one in Pegasus's own dining hall but large enough for the holograms (roughly six feet long). Set four inches from the edge of the table, on both sides, was the traditional card grid drawn in white and in the three inches separating the card grid from the hologram "battlefield grid" was a electronic counter that was set to 5000.

Ryou and Yugioh made their way to the only open side, since Pegasus had already seated himself and was watching them with a smile. Yugioh looked over the table before sitting down, noting that there was at least an inch of glass or such between the grid and the table, which meant that the electronics in the duel arenas had only been shrunk down and put into the simple top. Made sense. Taking a sigh, to steel her nerves, she sat in the high backed chair that was reserved for her at the end of the table while Ryou carefully sat to two feet to her left in an identical high backed chair. "Deck?" the bodyguard that had led them in asked as he held a box with a red velvet cloth draped over it. Yugioh gave him a weird look and easily pulled her main deck from her side and sat it in the box as Pegasus did the same.

"Are you ready for this, Yugi-chin?" Pegasus asked as a second bodyguard approached him with a second box; only this one had the deck she assumed was the silver haired man's. Sitting straight up, she carefully picked up the deck and shuffled it a few times before sitting it back in the tray and it was taken back to its owner while the first bodyguard brought her back her own deck.

"As ready as I'll ever be." She finally answered as he grinned and sat his deck down, she followed moments after and they both than drew their hand. "Would you like to go first?" she asked arranged her cards into a fan that was held in her right as he laughed and did the same, not realizing that she was not looking at her cards as she did this and that her fan was a bit small for five cards.

"Ladies first." He smoothly told her and motioned with his free hand but she snorted.

"I would hate to be rude, Pegasus-san, but you look more like a lady than I do." Yugioh coolly stated as his one eye narrowed as she drew a card and tried to ignore the fact he was now glaring intently at her and probably vowing revenge. Than again, she thought of Pegasus in a frilly pink dress singing 'I Feel Pretty' and dancing with one of his bodyguards and snickered as she sat down one card, face down in defense mode and one magic/spell/trap card.

**That was a very painful thought.** Atemu muttered with a mental shiver of his own, thankfully he was merged enough with Yugi that Pegasus could not hear his thoughts or his actions in the shared mind.

"Motou-san, why does Pegasus look like he swallowed a lemon?" Ryou asked in a worried tone as she glanced up and seen the man looked rather shaken.

"Ask me after the duel, if I tell you now I won't be able to stop laughing." She stage whispered as he looked curious and Pegasus drew a card and tried to keep from shivering. It was than he mimicked her first move of putting down on card face down in defense mode and one magic/spell/trap card, but his attempt to look smug was ruined by the fact he was still reeling from her thoughts.

"That good?" he asked, arching one eyebrow as she started to hum something that made Pegasus cringe while she drew a card, tucked it into her hand and than put a second card down in defense mode to end her turn.

"Are you humming something from _West Side Story_?" Ryou asked as Yugioh tried to look innocent, only to fail as Pegasus twitched and drew a card.

He knew the cards she had placed down on the field, he also knew her strategy from her previous duels and from her mind and knew that she would not attack yet, but something was seriously off. Every time he read her mind to know her strategies and cards, he could feel a buzz of something else and than would be bombarded by her thoughts. She was not supposed to be this strong against him! No one had ever been able to block his Millennium Eye, no one had lasted this long, and he would not let this slip of a girl do so. He would crush her and take the Millennium Puzzle, like he was told to do before the duel began, and than he would turn KaibaCorp over to the old board and would be on top of the world.

Gritting his teeth he put one card face down in defense mode on the field, knowing it would not do good to attack the cards she had down. Ending his turn without any comment he waved a hand in her direction as she drew a card and sat back in her chair with a lazy look on her face. She was not taking him seriously at all! "Yugi-chin." Pegasus stated in a rather sugary tone as she glanced up from her hand and nodded to him. "Do you know what you agreed to when I proposed this duel?"

"Maybe, but I have a feeling you are going to tell me anyways." She drawled out and tapped one of her cards with a thoughtful look on her face. "I know that I am here to duel you, as per the agreement that you set forth, but also because you are holding my Grandfather's soul hostage." Yugioh smiled at him as she stared him in the eye, carefully pulling a card from the far right of the card fan in her hand and sat it down by her one magic/spell/trap card.

"Duelists say that I can read a person's mind; that I am very good at predicting my opponent's moves before they even realize it." He proudly stated with his head tilted to the left, his one good eye shut with his fan of cards covering the lower half of his face like a Victorian lady with a fan.

"You are really creepy when you do that because you do act more feminine than I do." Yugioh deadpanned as he sat up straight and glared at her while she kept her slouched position. For a moment he decided to ignore her lack of manners and drew a card from the top of his deck and looked it over before placing it in his hand. "Now that you wandered off topic, can we get back on track? Thank you." It was rude, but Yugioh did not care because her actions and attitude seemed to annoy Pegasus more than anything… even the dress thought!

"I am getting there, Yugi-chin." He stated in a patronizing tone, gritting his teeth as she still stared at him with a look that clearly told him she did not care and her present thoughts was to just get the duel done and over with soon because the chit-chat was beginning to put her to sleep. "How can you defeat a duelist that can read your every thought? I can read you like an open book, Yugi-chin." (Paraphrased from Episode 35) He added as she just shrugged and tapped her feet against the ground. Ryou was frowning as he looked between both duelists, trying to figure out what was going on beneath the actions and the conversation

"So you have an unfair advantage, wouldn't be the first time in the history of the world something of this sort happened." Yugioh drawled out, waving her left hand in dismissal and mentally adding 'even if it is only in a card game' which caused him to frown and ended his turn without putting anything down. "You maybe able to read my mind like a book, but I will rewrite it in time." She stated with a smug smirk, noticing that the other man looked ready to lunge across the table and strangle her.

"I don't think I have ever seen someone so angry before." Ryou muttered in awe as Zuka stirred in his mind and took interest in what was going on before them.

_Now that is funny._ the Thief King commented as Pegasus tried to keep his composure while Yugioh was still slumped. _I think this is the Pharaoh's mindset taking over…_ he trailed off as she shifted so that she was leaning to the right, lifting her left leg just enough to drape over the left armrest. _Never mind, I know it is the Pharaoh's mindset._ he muttered with a snicker as Pegasus was definitely fuming and the duel had yet to truly begin!

"I am the creator of Duel Monsters, I do not have to take this." Pegasus stated with a pleased grin as Yugioh tilted her head back in question. It was than the room went dark and she and Ryou knew why he had been smug, but they knew that the man did not know what he had just done. It seemed turn about was fair game now.

Pegasus had called a Shadow Game many times before the duel he was engaged in now, but never before had he been brought to the room with the formal dueling circle and the two high backed chairs that sat across from one another. The place resembled a ancient Egyptian throne room, complete with the throne that sat on a small dias to his left with tourches spread in varying intervals along the walls. First he stared at his opponet, only to let his jaw drop in shock at the fact that he was staring at a regal young man in Egyptian clothing wearing the Millennium Puzzle around his neck instead of a trembling Motou Yugi. "Welcome to a true Shadow Game, Pegasus." He stated coldly, his deep voice making the silver haired man shiver.

"Who are you?" Pegasus demanded as he looked around the circled arena again, this time noting that the throne to his left was occupied by Yugi, only she was dressed in attire and accessories that made her resemble the Mystical Elf. He noted that she was sitting straight up with her arms were resting on the arm rests, looking much like a Queen surveying the scene of battle. His one good eye narrowed a bit as he noted that her violet eyes were blank and she was staring forward, he thought she would have made a lovely doll once he took the rest of her soul. "I did take her soul." He whispered in awe as the man growled.

"You only managed to steal half, she fought you and I made sure you did not succeed." The man sneered with a glare as Pegasus grinned, thinking that he had the advantage in this duel now. "Due to the fact she is only half a soul, I will be dueling in her place." He snapped as Pegasus watched as a board appeared on the young man's lap, moments later a board appeared on his own lap with his deck and the cards previously played on it.

"How can that be? She should forfiet!" the silver-haired man bellowed as the man snorted.

"I am, in all technicalities, her. I am her dark half, I reside in her soul and mind, and we share the same body… for now." He answered picking up the deck that was on the board. "Now, choose your board guard, Pegasus, and shuffle your deck so that we may end this duel quickly." With that he picked up Yugi's deck and started to flip through it till he pulled out one card and sat it to the side before shuffling the deck while Pegasus did the same.

Or tried to. As soon as Pegasus touched his deck a card appeared on top of it, face up, showing the Dark Elf. This was impossible because he did not have such a card in his deck! Gritting his teeth he decided to choose that monster, since it seemed to be a sign. Sitting the card to the side he watched as the Change of Heart, in the form of the rather cunning Bakura Ryou, appear beside the mysterious young man and the Dark Elf appeared by him, but she did not look the same as the card. For one he recognized the face and the demeanor, and two she wore a gold necklace around her throat that was veiled by black gauze. "Who would my opponent be?" Pegasus asked as the Dark Elf hissed when she looked upon the young man's face, his reaction was to glare daggers at her.

"Atemu." He gritted out as Ryou looked uneasy, he moved to hide behind the chair when the Dark Elf moved away from Pegasus and towards where Yugi was. Crossing the barrier of the circle she reached out to touch Yugi's knee, only to screech as a ball of magic hit her and sent her back into the circle with only her hair and robes sleeves singed. The Dark Elf sat up and glared as the Dark Magician Girl appeared before Yugi, her staff held in front of her with a scowl on her face. With a nod of satisfaction the blonde duel monster moved to stand beside the chair.

"It seems you still have many enemies." Atemu stated with an arrogant smirk as the Dark Elf growled at him and stormed back towards a confused Pegasus. The tri-color haired young man glanced at the Dark Magician Girl, who nodded to him as he smiled and returned it. "Let us begin than Pegasus." He stated lifting the board from his lap and carefully holding it out to his left, where Ryou took it. "Stay behind the chair, I'll tell you what happens on the field."

"What are you doing? How will you duel?" Pegasus demanded, biting his lip as his one means of making sure he would win was removed from him. So long as Ryou stayed out of his view he would not know what was going on in his head, which meant that Atemu had the advantage!

"My board guardian will duel in my place for now." He replied with a laugh, carefully shifting to the right and draping his left leg over the armrest of his chair in a near perfect mirror of how Yugioh had been positioned before the Shadow Game.

"You can't do that, this is not right." He stated as the Dark Elf rolled her eyes and took the board from him as he frowned.

"This is a true Shadow Game, Pegasus, how long do you think you can last?" he asked as the first card was played by Ryou and Celtic Guardian appeared on the field in attack mode just as a Giant Soldier of Stone appeared in defense mode with a bored looking Witty Phantom in his orange skin, yellow hair, and purple suited glory tossing a knife into the air and easily catching it.

Over the next few turns Pegasus set more monsters on the field, decimating all of Atemu's offenses and defense with the exception of the Giant Soldier of Stone, but he was getting weaker in his hold on the game. It seemed that he did not count on facing an opponet that was well versed in Shadow Games, nor did he expect to keep them in the Shadow Realm for so long. "How do you know when the duel is finished if there are no life points here?" Pegasus asked as a bead of sweat trailed down the side of his face, if there had been life points he would have won by now with how many defense creature Atemu had lost! With a renewed determination, Pegasus kept eye contact with the smug Atemu, in hopes of gaining something from his mind that could possibly be used against him or to lure out his board guard, but had no such luck. If anything, the commentary that had proudly stated annoyed Pegasus even more and Ryou continued to play any type of monster in a weird blitzkrieg or sacrifice, there was no method to the boys strategy.

"When the opponet is in possession of the other's board." Atemu lazily answered, waving his hand in dismissal as another one of his creatures was destroyed by the Witch of the Black Forest, who was now advancing on his Giant Soldier of Stone, while the Ryu-Ran that had been summoned a few turns back was shifting from foot-to-foot in boredom. The crimson eyed young man than shifted his eyes from Pegasus to stare at the glaring Dark Elf, who had refused to participate in this duel and had taken to staring intently at Yugi with a look of longing. Things were not going how Pegasus had wanted! It was not supposed to be like this!

As Pegasus was getting closer and closer to pitchign a tantrum, he drew a card and than grinned. Atemu's eyebrows rose in question as the silver haired man that let out a belly laugh put that card down face up, watching as his Ryu-Ran shifted to stare at him for orders. "I now summon Toon World, the pride of the cards that I had created especially for this tournament!" He stated proudly as Atemu looked unmoved by this, even whent eh book appeared on the field and oepned up to show the silhouette of a townscape. "This card single handedly brought down Kaiba Seto before this duel, but you already know that. Now you will feel the power of my precious Toons!" Was his proud explanation as the book suddenly started to shiver as the shadows gathered around it, eating away at the town and the pages before their very own eyes. "What?" he hissed out, leaning forward as the red-eyed young man sighed.

"You have crossed a line that not even I would dare to cross, Pegasus." Atemu drawled out with a frown as the shadows seem to keep their phsyical form. The Pharaoh did not flinch as the physical manifestation fo the shadows moved to him and inspected him for a moment before heading towards Yugi, only to be warded off by the Dark Magician Girl.

"Let it be." Yugi mumbled as Pegasus stiffened at the sound of her voice, but the Shadows slipped past the blonde spellcaster and faded. It was an odd occurance, but none dared to question what had just happened.

"A Millennium item cannot create, Pegasus, for only the gods and women can do such." Atemu explained as the man shrugged and went back to his hand. "You brought one of your creations into the Shadow Realm, where only the Shadows may create. That was either your first warning or something else." He stated as the silver haired man snarled uncharacteristically at the statement, disregarding what the young man said in favor of what he could do with his hand.

"I do not believe your words." Pegasus stated with his nose in the air, confident that he would win despite the fact that he felt more pressure on his shoulders than before. He would end the game in the next turn and get revenge for what happened to his precious Toon World.

"Yugi, do you feel up to finishing this off?" Atemu called out with a grin, ignoring Pegasus denial, and smiling at his Hikari. She did not give a verbal answer, but she did slowly get to her feet and made her way down the small dias, the Dark Magician Girl carefully hovering by her side. It was than that Ryou decided to peek out from behind the chair where Atemu sat, only he was grinning. In moments Yugi was standing in front of him and he readily offered her the board.

"Thank you for your help." Yugi told him with a nod as Ryou nodded and disappeared, as the Dark Magician Girl followed his led. With that done, Yugi carefully sat in front of the chair as Atemu brought his right leg flush against her right side in a comforting gesture. She picked up the cards and looked them over as Pegasus smirked and tried to enter her mind only to find himself stuck in the middle of half formed thoughts and memories that were chaotic, a fractured soul meant a fractured mind. He pulled back, knowing that it would do him no good to linger longer in her mind seeing that it would be a waste of time, as she carefully drew a card and placed it face up.

"Summoned Skull attack his Ryu-Ran!" Atemu ordered after the fearsome skeletal monster appeared on the field. "I would have said your Witch, but depending on how much longer you keep this duel going we would not want to see a means for you to regain Toon World would we?

"Are you feeling the press of the game?" Yugi suddenly asked as she tilted her head to the side just as Atemu decided that he would sit int eh chair properly, letting his leg slide from the armrest to be against her left side. At this point he was delighting in the look of death on the Dark Elf's face, not to mention Pegasus's annoyance at the public display of affection and the casual nature at which they were handling this duel. "I activate Swords of Revealing Light." She than stated pulling said spell card from the middle of the fan of cards in her hand and sitting itdown; it was one full turn later that things became rather heated as Pegasus's ability to keep the Shadow Game going started to crack.

"Well, Pegasus?" Atemu purred out as he leaned forward and rested his chin on top of Yugi's head, his arms loosely wrapped around her shoulders. The Summoned Skull, after one entire turn of battling, had came out on top but was seriously injured as he advanced on Pegasus, despite the glaring of the Dark Elf. It was with the Summoned Skulls narrow win over the Ryu-Ran that Pegasus made the decision to end the Shadow Game, just so he could use the rest of his prized creations. He would not have the Shadow Realm destroy his chance to win against her. In a split second the formal dueling circle and the throne room had faded back into the private dueling room where the duel began, the bodyguards shaking their heads in confusion and looking as if they had just woke up from an impromtu nap while Ryou made a drama of stretching out his aching limbs and shook his own head, mimicking them.

Yugioh did not see anything going on around her as she winced due to being forced back into the merging, she had a hell of a headache building in her temples now and if Pegasus dared to look into her mind during this last leg of the duel she was going to make sure he shared in her pain. Pegasus had decided that it would not be worth the hassle of looking into a fractured mind and decided to duel her, skill versus skill, and than claim the Millennium Puzzle for his own. "With that, I play Dark Hole." Pegasus stated happily as she sat straight up, wishing this damned duel was over already. This was the longest duel she had ever participated in and by the far the most boring.

"That's nice." She stated covering a yawn and looking over her hand and than at her life points. "What the hell?" she got out and seen that the 5000 was now at 500 and Pegasus own points was at 2000.

**That is an interesting handicap.** Atemu muttered as he stirred for a moment. **I wonder how it happened.**

"I wonder." She muttered and glanced at Ryou from the corner of her eye.

"It doesn't matter." Pegasus snapped as her eyes snapped over to him and she sat back, staring at him as he continued his turn. "I summon Dark Eyes Illusionist, another of my new monsters, and I will leave you to wonder about what this one does." He stated putting the card down in attack mode while she sat back and frowned. The creature that appeared was different from his much loved Toon World, having a head that had the Eye of Ra on it dressed in what could be a cross between clown's attire and something from Shakespeare but to her it was a train wreck she could not look away from. It did not matter that the monster had no attack points and 1400 defense points, but it was something that she did not like nor trust. Taking in a deep, calming breath Yugioh drew a card and glanced at it for a moment before tilting her head to the side and putting that card face up in attack mode. In front of her appeared the Curse of Dragon, attack of 2000 and defense of 1500.

"Another of your lovely surprises, I think I'll forgo the attacking and end my turn." She stated as Ryou got up and left the room again, saying he had to go to the bathroom.

"Thank you, Yugi-chin!" Pegasus crowed as he drew his card, placed it in his hand, but pulled another card from his hand and put it down happily. The card was Dark Illusion Ritual, obviously another one of his created cards, and when it appeared on the field below Dark Eyes Illusionist she scowled. Just how many of these one-of-a-kind tricks did the man have for this duel? It was hardly fair to pull new cards on duelists! Gritting her teeth, Yugioh swore mentally that she would make sure this man suffered for the annoyance he was being, then she settled a bit and mentally berated herself for being so violent. She'll just knock him out, some how, and tear of the cards and than throw them into the ocean on the return.

That would work better.

"And?" she groaned out, rearranging her hand as he put another card down and the ritual began.

"I am sacrificing my Dark Eyes Illusionist to summon forth Relinquished, the crème-de-la-crème of my new creations!" he laughed as said disturbing creature appeared on the field. Its skin was all black with silver lines and a head that had a green, glowing Eye of Ra on it while long claws were visible on its hands and two odd "wings" attached to its shoulders. It had no lower body was visible, except for a weird mouth of sorts that was set where its stomach would have been, and it floated above the field easily but had no attack of defense points. This one was by far of the weirdest creatures she had seen and her mind was boggling at what this one would do.

"I was hoping this was a nightmare, but obviously I'm not that lucky." Yugioh replied with a frown, her hope of winning slipping slightly at the summoning of the unknown creature, but her spirits lifted a little bit as Pegasus glared at her for her comment.

**Hikari, do not forget who you are fighting for.** her Shadow whispered in her mind as she felt a hand on her left shoulder, trying to give her at least some confidence. He knew that she could win the duel.

"The nightmare has yet to begin, Yugi-chin." He added sitting back in his chair as she snorted, but leaned to the left and into Atemu's comforting touch.

"I know cheesy horror movies that start out the same." Yugioh stated as he sighed and ignored what she had said and ended his turn, since the Swords of Revealing Light would be up on his next turn. She drew a card and than placed it in attack mode and the Dark Magician appeared on the field beside the Curse of Dragon. "As much as I hate to do this, I will not attack yet again." He laughed and drew a card as she scowled.

"Relinquished, absorb her Curse of Dragon." Pegasus casually ordered as the "stomach" started to flex and a vacuum was created. This vacuum was focused on the golden dragon by the Dark Magician and, eventually, sucked the monster into Relinquished.

"Ew." She got out as Pegasus ended his turn and she drew a card and laid that face down in defense mode. "Let's give this a shot, Dark Magician attack his Relinquished." She stated as the Dark Magician did so, but Pegasus still had yet to lose his smug expression.

"Relinquished, activate your shield." He simply stated as the "wings" folded over to form a shield across its "chest" and the Curse of Dragon appeared on the wings, taking the entire attack from the Dark Magician and destroying the dragon. Yugioh blinked a few times as her 900 life points dropped to 100.

"Eh?" she eloquently asked as he laughed.

"Such a lovely effect, isn't it? Any monster my Relinquished absorbs uses it as a shield. Ingenious, isn't it?" he asked with pride as she twitched and refrained from comment. "It seems that you are getting down to the wire, Yugi-chin."

"Where the hell is a Raigeki when you need it?" Yugioh commented as she glanced at her deck, almost accusing it of something. She could call a Shadow Game since her power reserves were still strong, but that was only because Atemu would be in complete charge of the game while she stayed in her weird half state. No, she was not in the right state for that and the other one proved that they were either evenly matched or Pegasus forgot about the need to steal the board. She would not take that chance, not now. Yet again her confidence dropped a bit, but not too much seeing Atemu squeezed her shoulder.

**Focus! Do not let him get you down, if you do you have already lost!** he all but shouted as she took in a deep breath through her nose and exhaled it through her mouth.

"Not that lucky this time?" Ryou asked as she looked away from her cards to pin him with a dark glare, one that promised pain and suffering after the duel.

"Bakura-san." She growled as he smiled and tried to look innocent, only to fail miserably as she turned her attention back to the duel just as Pegasus drew a card and placed it in his hand before ending his turn. It did not help matters that he still looked disturbingly over confident. With a resigned sigh, Yugioh drew a card and glanced up at the monster and than back down at the card before placing it face down in the second row of her card grid. "We are going to have a long discussion after this, since you seem to be a little devil beneath that tarnished halo." It was than that Pegasus drew a card and placed it face up in attack mode. A floating ball that was half blue and half red, with a clock that had the numbers zero to three on the front in the blue top area, appeared on the field with its arms limp at its side. The Jigen Bakudan, a self-destruct monster with a defense 1000 and attack of 200.

"Relinquished, assimilate her Dark Magician!" he bellowed as the odd creature did so, the Dark Magician appearing half merged into shield of Relinquished, causing Yugioh to twitch.

"He'll be needing the disinfectant after this." She commented with a shiver. "My poor Dark Magician!" she whined, brushing away invisible tears while Ryou started to cough to hide his laughter while she drew a card.

**Such a disgusting monster, doing that to others. I can see why the Shadow Realm did what it did.** Atemu commented as she felt his hand leave, but his presence was still active in her mind.

"Yugi-chin." Pegasus gritted out as she started to whistle a tune while looking over the card in her hand. "You have two turns to finish this duel or I will do it for you."

"Oh?" He sat back with a grin, as she did not even look up from her hand.

"The card that I just placed down is the Jigen Bakudan, if you did know, which can be offered as a tribute during a phase of my turn." He continued to say as she frowned at this declaration and than looked at the attack points of Relinquished and than back at him.

"If I remember correctly, I would get direct damage that was what? Half of the attack points of your monsters?" she asked as he nodded and than she quirked an eyebrow. "Relinquished has an attack of zero, so what is half of zero?" Despite her question and the sarcasm behind it, he was still smiling and this was a bit creepy to the two teens. "Moving on, I play Mystic Box." With that the two magicians boxes, complete with the three sections and the sword slits in the sides, appeared— one around the Jigen Bakudan and the other around the Dark Magician, who was merged with the shield of Pegasus's Relinquished.

"What?" Pegasus growled out as she shrugged and her Dark Magician appeared unharmed, making his way back to her side as the other one opened up to show the bomb implanted into Relinquished. "Damn it!" he snarled and brought a hand down on the table as she snickered at the fact that he had finally cursed at her.

"Now, I will play Brain Control." She added brightly and put that card down as Pegasus looked like he was developing a nervous twitch. "Sorry, I have been hording these cards since the Shadow Game. Figured they would come in handy if I was patient and determined enough."

"How nice." He deadpanned as a giant brain with hands appeared on the field, pulling Relinquished to her side of the field. "Now what are you going to do?"

"I think I will play this magic card that I drew a few turns back." She answered happily and flipped it over. "Dark Magic Ritual, a rare chance to draw it but it did happen and without the bad luck of running out of cards." With that the table of sacrifice appeared on the field with the two, gold incense burners on either side. "So, I will be sacrificing my much loved Dark Magician and your Jigen Bakudan for this ritual." With that both creatures disappeared as Pegasus waited patiently.

"And?" he pressed as the ritual exploded outwards and a new duel monster stood on the field. He was clad in black leather with red straps scattered all over his attire as his long black hair fell to his knees, held back from his face by a black head piece that resembled two horns and had red designs on it. This was the Magician of Black Chaos, attack 2800 and defense 2600, in all of his dark glory.

"May I present to you the Magician of Black Chaos." Yugioh stated sitting back in her chair and relaxing a bit, having brought forth a strong defense and securing the safety of her remaining life points, as Ryou gave a low whistle of appreciation. "Let's see you go against him." She challenged as Pegasus twitched. He knew that he had no chance now; since this was her only summoning this turn and that she still could attack, since he had nothing on his side to take the attack.

"Careful, Motou-san, he may be a bit rusty from having to rely on the Millennium Eye." Ryou loudly whispered, afterwards both teens swore they heard something crack in the room as Pegasus was growling.

"We have to work on your whispering skills." She told him with a mock frown as he shrugged.

"It is the truth! I thought he could do better, geez!" he stated with exasperation, crossing his arms and sitting back with a pout.

"Magician of Black Chaos, the show is all yours!" Yugioh stated as the magician dealt the final blow to Pegasus's life points, seeing Relinquished was still in her control. The silver-haired man screamed in anger about losing to someone that had only 100 life points! It was than his Millennium Eye glowed and three orbs shot from his coat pocket and sped out of the room, distracting everyone long enough that Ryou got out of his seat and slipped into the shadows of the room to wait for the right moment to spring his attack.

Yugioh hissed as her body was wracked with a semi-familiar pain, but it quickly passed, allowing her to take in a deep breath. With Pegasus's defeat, the merging had unraveled itself when the other half of her soul was released from its card prison so she now felt complete again, felt like herself. Calmly she gathered her deck together, ignoring the fact that Ryou was no longer in the room, and ignored the fact that Pegasus was slumped over his side of the table, pounding his fists on the table at his loss to the dark horse of the tournament. As she was about to put her deck back into its pouch, a bodyguard presented her with an envelope, which she pocketed, and a card before he went to make sure that Pegasus would truly be all right.

Tucked the card away on top of her main deck, she slipped her deck into its holding place on her belt as a maid brought in her packed messenger bag. "Please follow me, Motou-san, the others are waiting for you." She stated with a bow as Yugi took her bag, slinging it over her right shoulder and finally cracked a smile that did not look painted on her face or sadistic.

Her grandfather was safe, Kaiba was safe, and Mokuba was probably safe… she never did find out what happened before her first Shadow Game. Shaking her head she watched as the maid paused by the door, obviously she had been to deep in her own thoughts. "Sorry." Yugi stated as she crossed the distance easily and was out the door, letting it shut softly behind her.

"It seems that you underestimated the power of the Millennium Puzzle, Pegasus." A rather cold voice cackled as Pegasus's head shot up as the bodyguard drew his gun, only to pause as they seen Bakura Ryou sitting where Yugi had been during the duel. The teenager rested his elbows on the table with his fingers intertwined, looking rather evil as he peered at the older man. "Or, did you underestimate the power that Motou Yugi has?"

"What power? That was all the damned spirits doing, not her!" Pegasus shouted, jumping when his bodyguard let out a scream and was gone as the Man-Eater Bug stood in his place looking rather pleased with it self. He turned his attention back to Bakura and seen that he was frowning, obviously disagreeing with his statement.

"I will not elaborate on that, since you do not deserve such." He dryly stated and picked some invisible lint from his shirt. "My Hikari told me about your failed Shadow Game, about how your Dark Elf board guard was rather enamored with the half-present Yugi and was angry about being fought off by the Dark Magician Girl." He stated with a grin as Pegasus grit his teeth. "Than Atemu, I take it she utterly loathed him… but that does not explain why she abandoned you."

"She is a stupid creature!" he snarled as Bakura's eyebrows went up in surprise.

"I doubt that, from what my Hikari said that was not the usual Dark Elf. He told me that she was rather human like, for no creature hates the Pharaoh that is their guard and has respected them since the Shadow Realms blessed him with their power." He continued as Pegasus got to his feet and slammed his palms down on the table, cracking the computer-like top with the force of his anger.

"What are you still doing here? Get out!" he screamed as Bakura got to his feet and pulled his own deck from his side.

"You have something I want, Pegasus, and I will get it at all costs." Bakura purred and pulled a card as Pegasus paled at that statement. "Defend yourself." Was the last statement Pegasus would remember for the rest of his life.

* * *

**A/N:** Just ignore the fact that the Jigen Bakudan is a flip effect monster, I couldn't figure out how to make it work and decided to bow down to the Anime. Oh yeah, that is a _Secondhand Lions_ reference at the end... I did not realize it at the time.

**Rewrite Complete: **Thursday 12 June 2008  
**Beta'd:** S2Teennovelist


	13. THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ADVENTURE

**H. THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ADVENTURE**

_Yugi Muto, where are you?  
The Pharaoh's calling me  
Solve the puzzle, transform  
In to the Duel King and teach me (Yami Yugi)_

_Summoning and defending (Come on let's go)  
Face down, flip effect, fusion is a vital key  
Exodia the Forbidden One  
It's in my possession, now the d-d-d-d-duel is done_

_Now I am the master of the duel  
It's been my pleasure to meet you_

_Welcome, welcome, welcome  
To the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!_

- _World of Yu-Gi-Oh_ from the album "Yu-Gi-Oh! Music to Duel By"

* * *

The maid left her at the bottom of the stairs and Yugi had made her way across the village, the one that the duelist had gathered in for Pegasus's opening speech at the beginning of the tournament, and she was still smiling. All she had to do now was get back to the mainland, see her Grandpa, take a shower and sleep in her own bed… She paused as the bottom of the gangplank for a moment, she than removed the Millennium Puzzle from around her neck and secured it around the strap of her bag. With a sigh she tilted her head back, rubbed the back of her neck since the weight was gone, and chuckled. The tournament was over, her torture was over, and now she could move on with her life.

She hoped, but for some reason the little voice in the back of her mind was snickering at her hope. With a sigh she slowly made her way up the gangplank. "Yugi!" a familiar voice shouted as she found herself on her butt, on the top of the gangplank roughly two feet from the ship, with a happy Mokuba in her lap with his arms around her neck.

"The trouble maker!" she stated with a laugh, as he did not let her go, even when a shadow fell over her. She glanced up and seen Kaiba was standing over her, arms crossed but his usual stoic expression had broke in favor of a smirk. "Hey stranger, you have some explaining to do." She stated getting to her feet, which meant she had braced both of her hands against the wood and shifted so that she was on her knees. After that she brought her arms around Mokuba, who was still attached to her and unwilling to let go, and barely got to her feet.

"I claimed a state room, so I can tell you everything." He stated with a nod and turned and started to walk as she quickly caught up with him.

"Mokuba?" Yugi asked as the boy tightened his grip.

"Last time I let you go you disappeared." He muttered as she just let him hold on to her.

"I didn't mean to." She stated, as Kaiba did not turn to them, but led her down a set of stairs to a lower level. "Where are the others?"

"Mazaki and Honda took one room, she was pissed off and worth a few laughs. Katsuya took another room, he seemed changed some how." Kaiba stated as he opened the first door and peered in before opening the door wider and stepping in as she followed. As soon as she was in the room four feet, Kaiba shut the door behind them and removed his trench coat.

"Katsuya-san learned about a certain someone's true character, but Honda is a little thick." Yugi answered as she took in the room. The room was painted a deep red with no decorations on the walls, but there was one round window in the center of the wall right across from the wooden door. There was a sofa against the wall to Yugi's left with a round table and three chairs to her right, but the room was nothing special. Kaiba moved to her right and tossed his trench coat over a chair, than grabbed the second and pulled it over as she moved to sit on the sofa. Mokuba released her a bit to sit on the couch himself while she got back to her feet and dropped her bag with the Millennium Puzzle in front of the couch before sitting down again. As she was doing this, Kaiba sat the chair down in front of her and sat down.

"How did that happen?" he asked tilting his head to the side as she grinned.

"Over time, beginning with my warning to him on this very boat and than a card exchange before the semi-finals. He's not a bad person." She stated as he nodded. "Kaiba, I see that look in your eyes… you are interested in him, aren't you?" she teased as he glared at her.

"Aniki?" Mokuba asked as Kaiba looked away.

"Anyways, how did you get to the island and where the hell were you when this entire thing started?" Yugi demanded as she scooted forward to sit on the edge of the sofa, elbows on her knees with her fingers intertwined and leaning forward a bit with her lips pressed into a thin line. Kaiba did not look her in the eye, but she did not move.

"Pegasus had his lackeys invade our mansion, he managed to grab Mokuba because our butler was in on the whole thing but I managed to barely get away. I was staying at an undisclosed location, waiting for the right time to arrive here." He answered as Mokuba shivered he moved closer to Yugi, closing his eyes as he as his older brother told the story of what happened. "Than his lackeys found me, they told me what I had to do and than tried to knock me out. So I took a dive off of a cliff…"

"What?" Yugi hissed out as her eyes widened in shock. "Cliff?"

"So after that I managed to get in contact with one of my chopper pilots and had him meet me someplace close to where I was and than got a ride to Pegasus's castle. He dropped me off and left and I snuck in and caused some issues." He continued, keeping everything general as Yugi started to develop a twitch in her fingers. "Than I was led to Pegasus and he said I had to duel you for five star chips, since he gave me five."

"Great, now I wished I had done something to Pegasus." She muttered sitting back as Mokuba looked nervous and was about to tell her his side of the story, only Kaiba held up his hand.

"Don't, she looks ready to kill him already." He stated as Mokuba snickered while Yugi growled, but the boy just wrapped his arms around her arm and proceeded to fall asleep. "Does that explain enough?"

"Yeah, but if you ever leave me in the dark like that again I'll make sure KaibaCorp has to search for a new CEO. Got it?" she growled as he paled and nodded. "Good." With that she relaxed, letting her head fall back and bringing a hand up to cover her face while Kaiba quirked an eyebrow.

"Tired?" he asked as she gave a tired laugh.

"Dead on my feet." She muttered as he nodded and got to his feet.

"Sleep, I'll go see if there is any food and such on this toy boat." Kaiba stated as he opened the door, knowing his statement fell on deaf ears since Yugi was already asleep as was his younger brother. Mentally he started to come up with the varying ways to make Pegasus suffer as he shut the door, not knowing what was going to happen in his absence.

The ship was on its way to the mainland moments later, Ryou having boarded at the last moment, but no one noticed the fact that there was one extra passenger. The man stood about six foot with darkly tanned skin with his head wrapped in a white turban, the cloth covering to his ear lobs and was brought out by the thick circle earrings that were solid gold. A white cowl was loosely wrapped around his shoulders, over the baggy tan robe that went to his feet. Around his neck was a foot long golden ankh; only the end was the shape of a key, which hung on a brown leather strap. His bluish-violet eyes took in the dark corridor as he brought a hand up to lightly run his callused fingertips over the wall, pausing as his fingers were no longer touching the wall but hovering over the wooden door. He turned to face the door and pressed his palm against it, blinking a few times before his hand drifted down and turned the knob and carefully pushed the door open. He took one step in and seen that the room was empty, save for the teenage girl that was sleeping with her head back and a black haired boy that was partially in her lap and asleep against her side.

Moving farther into the room, keeping his footsteps light, he moved to where the chair was in front of them so that he could get a closer look a the girl. He leaned forward as she stirred and brought her head up to look him straight in the eye, causing him to freeze like a deer in the headlights. Despite her confused look he recognized those violet eyes and the structure of her face, even if all he could see was the black part of her hair and the blonde bangs framing her face. "Who the hell are you?" she asked as full awareness took the place of the sleepy daze she had been in.

It was in the moment that it took Yugi to become fully aware of everything when the man made his split second decision at that point, grabbing for the key-like ankh around his neck. With a yank the cord came undo and he brought the end up to her forehead, causing her eyes to go blank but her body did not lean forward or back. He turned the ankh and felt his spirit pass through the golden object in his hand and slip into her soul, into her mind, to begin his investigation while his body stayed standing up.

The blue-eyed man found himself in a dimly lit, possibly gray corridor. To his left were stones that were darkened with something that could be considered vines growing over the stones and a metal door about five feet in front of him, the Eye of Ra engraved in its middle. The darkness and annoyance he felt from that side made him shiver, but to his right there was a simple wall with a wooden door that was directly across from the metal door but it had no marks on its surface and was half open. He crossed the distance between him and the doors, but took a step to the right and pushed the wooden door open a bit more and peered into the dim depths of the room.

"It is odd to see two within one mind, especially such opposites." He muttered taking a step into the room, eyes adjusting to the dim light. The bed was messed up, several books were piled by it, but the shelves in the room were orderly. He seen varying stuffed animals scattered around the room with different types of books and objects. "Innocence hidden beneath." He felt the darkness on the other side of the corridor, this time he swore he could feel someone glaring into his back.

"I do not like when people invade my Hikari's mind." A deep voice growled out as the man in tanned robes spun around and found himself face to face with a very familiar young man in Egyptian attire. "State who you are and why you are here." He demanded in a tone that spoke volumes about his patience.

"I am Shadi, the guardian of the Millennium Items." The man in tan robes stated with a nod to the red-eyed young man. "My business is with those that possess a Millennium item, so I have business with the child that possesses the Millennium Puzzle in this case." He added as the other considered this for a moment.

"She is under my protection and she is mine, guardian." He stated taking a step back and turning towards the metal door, which was barley open. A moment later he flashed Shadi a devious grin, which in turn made the robed man feel a bit nervous, and reached up with his right hand and opened the door a bit more. "If you can find her, you can speak to her."

"What do you mean?" Shadi asked as he stepped out of the comforting room and closer to the darker side of the mind he was in.

"I took her into my own soul room when she woke up." With that the door swung open a bit more and the teen stepped into the shadows, fully disappearing with the exception of his crimson eyes. "Do you think you can find her?"

"I have to." The blue-eyed man stated in a determined tone as she stepped into the doorway of the second room, the shadows gave way to show a stone room that would have made Escher cry because he could not do it justice. The walls were covered in doors of all sizes, shapes, and materials with varying symbols on them as staircases led to them, most of the staircases designs to have steps on both sides.

"Than I wish you luck, for not even I know everything contained in here." A voice echoed as Shadi frowned. "So you best start your search, Shadi, or retreat from this. Either way does not matter to me." With that the blue-eyed man took in a deep breath and set off towards the staircase closest to him.

Frustration was what Shadi was feeling as he got further into the twisted and dark soul room of the young man with crimson eyes, the ancient one. This was the first time in many millennia that he had the urge to scream to the heavens, claw at the walls declaring the injustice of his situation. He paused in one corridor, pressing a hand against the door as he bit his lip to keep his calm. The last time he lost his calm was… "Too many false hopes reside behind some of these doors, they have to be turning me against myself." He whispered to himself, hoping that what he said out loud would calm his darkening thoughts. "Other doors are locked, some of those are chained with old wards on them." He continued as his nerves calmed a bit and his thoughts turned back to his task. "Than the traps, most are deadly and others are much like a child's prank."

This place was torture to him, never before had he second-guessed himself this much. Never before had he felt afraid of someone. Shadi took a deep breath in, closing his eyes and centering himself a bit before he exhaled the breath. Opening his eyes he took a step forward, only he unknowingly activated another trap. He gasped as the floor gave out into a black void. "I will be lost if I fall, damn it all." he whispered in fear, barely catching the stone edge that was formed with the removal of the stones. "I can't fail this, I can't." he gasped out, staring down at the voice as his determination was nearly over taken with fear for his safety and a resignation to his failure.

"Hold on!" he heard a female voice shout, causing him to look up just as a pale hand curled around the wrist of his left hand followed by a second hand around his other wrist. The face of the teenage girl that he had seen in the physical world than popped over the edge, her violet eyes reflecting her concern. "You are going to have to help me out a bit, I don't think I can lift you up by my strength alone." She stated and pulled as he shifted and tentatively adjusted himself so that his feet were braced against the wall of the pit as she pulled him up. After a few minutes, at least three failed attempts, she had finally gotten his upper half out of the pit and he could pull himself the rest of the way out of the pit.

"How did you find me?" he asked after getting to his feet to brush some dust from his robes as she sat on the stone floor, hands braced behind her as her legs were stretched in front of her and crossed at the ankles.

"I followed the trail of sprung traps." She stated with a shrug. "Also, Atemu directed me since you haven't tried anything to minimize your presence… or so he said. Gave him a headache."

"I gave him a headache?" Shadi echoed in a disbelieving frown as she snickered.

"He said you had some issues you wanted to discuss with me." With that said she slowly shifted her position and got to her feet, arms crossed over her chest while her facial expression was neutral.

"The Millennium Puzzle. You may have…" he trailed off as the floor to their side reformed and the door at the end of the corridor swung open. Shadi turned to cross the distance, but was stopped by the fact that the girl was by him and had a hand around his arm.

"A word to the wise, stranger, just because a door swings open doesn't mean you should enter it." She told him with a laugh. She let his arm go and turned to go the opposite way. "Horror movie lesson, it will probably take you to your death if you enter it." He frowned and stared at the door for a moment before turning to watch her head the opposite way.

"Pardon!" he shouted and rushed to catch up with her, only doing so because she paused in the doorway to the corridor. "What is your name?" he asked as she left that corridor into the open area that had a view of the metal door that led into the gray corridor.

"Motou Yugi." She answered and sat down again as he followed. "What were you saying about the Millennium Puzzle?" He was caught off guard by her sudden question, but blushed in embarrassment as he realized that she was waiting for him to finish what he had began to say earlier.

"The Puzzle may not have been meant for you, because several of the Millennium items had been stolen from their resting place before they could have been claimed by their true owners." He finished as she looked at him oddly. "Only two items had been properly claimed. The first was the Millennium Ring by the father of the present possessor of the Ring, and the second was the Millennium Eye, but later it turned out the Eye was passed on to someone that it should not have been. That woman returned to their resting place, after tricking me, and stole the last two in the room."

"So I should not have had the Puzzle?" she asked, echoing his earlier statement as he nodded.

"I have a feeling that you were not meant to possess the Puzzle, in the sense of being the one to wear it and to weld its power. I figure that you were possibly destined for another of the Millennium items, but I have no idea which one." Shadi stated looking away from her, instead he looked over the stairs and doors above them as she continued to stare at him. "If anything you would have eventually been asked to assemble the Millennium Puzzle, but that would have been at least a few years after you received whatever item."

"Atemu would beg to differ, considering the fact he is…" she trailed off as his head whipped around to her.

"That name." Shadi stated as she shrugged.

"You are a bit slow, aren't you?" Yugi asked tilting her head to the side as he glared. "I said his name after I saved your ass from the Black Hole of Doom back there and you didn't realize it."

"Do you know anything about Atemu?" he demanded, ignoring her teasing as she shook her head.

"I know he was a Pharaoh and he's Egyptian, was bound in the Puzzle and is very possessive despite the fact I have agreed to nothing." Was her only answer as Shadi started to shake. Yugi frowned as she realized that he had bowed his head and was trembling, but she did not know that he was beginning to fill in the blanks to why that woman stole the remaining Millennium items. He did not want to believe it; he did not want history to repeat itself.

"Be warned, Motou Yugi, that you have a rough path ahead of you." He stated getting to his feet as she frowned at his cryptic words. "Do not let history repeat itself, no matter what. The Puzzle will protect you from old enemies, but you will have to retrieve the Millennium Tauk in order to understand." With that he made for the nearest staircase as she scrambled to her feet.

"Millennium Tauk? What do you mean?" she demanded as he paused, halfway down the staircase, and glanced at her from over his right shoulder.

"There are seven items— Puzzle, Eye, Ring, Key, Scale, Tauk, and Rod. Each have a specific ability other than calling on the Shadow Realms." He stated as she nodded, understanding that much. "They each had someone they were gifted to and they will find their way back to those that posses that soul and, if that is the case, I have the feeling that the Tauk will guide you." She twitched as her hands curled into fists at her side, betraying her annoyance.

"What of your invasion of privacy than? Am I suppose to write this off as nothing?" she demanded as he laughed.

"Do with it what you will, but I will be more careful in the future." He stated reaching the bottom of the stairs on to the main level and quickly left the soul room and was out into the real world again.

Back in Japan, specifically at the Museum of Natural History located in the center of Domino City, a black haired and eyed young woman with darkly tanned skin sat in a chair behind a simple wooden desk in a Spartan decorated office, three large windows at her back and looking out over a busy cityscape. Her simple white dress with its black square spirals around the neckline, cuffs of the sleeves, and the ankle length hem of the dress showed that she was not professional, but traditional, but the gold circlet around her head showed she was well off or stuck in another time period. The only thing that did not make sense, in her attire, was the white scarf that was wrapped loosely around her throat, showing hints of a gold choker around her slender neck. Her desk was neat and orderly, all the papers in piles to either side of her open black laptop computer.

_"I apologize, ma'am, but here are the videos of several duels of the duelist from Domino City that you requested, Mr. Pegasus had these recorded for you before his unfortunate accident."_ A man stated in English as she sat back in her chair and rested her elbows on the arms of the chair, head cocked to the side as she stared at the screen.

"Accident?" she asked in an accented voice, as there was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

_"After his duel with Miss Motou he removed his left eye and attempted to kill himself, reasons still unknown, but he is alive but in a comatose state. Doctors have no idea if he will recover or not."_ The man elaborated as she shrugged. So Pegasus had failed in the simple mission she gave him, but she anticipated that. He had been twisted so easily to her plans, but it seemed he was too weak to weld the power of a Millennium item.

"I take it his side job of taking over KaibaCorp, with the help of Gozuburo Kaiba's board, failed as well." She commented as the man coughed a few times, mostly out of shock while she gave out a cold laugh. "What duels are you sending me?"

_"Ryou Bakura and Jonouchi Katsuya versus the Gatekeepers; Panik versus Mai Kujaku; Panik versus Yugi Motou; Bandit Keith versus Anzu Mazaki; Yugi Motou versus Anzu Mazaki; Jonouchi Katsuya versus Mai Kujaku; Yugi Motou versus Maximillion Pegasus."_ He answered as she nodded. _"Also, several pictures of the four finalist and a few of those that tagged along with Miss Mazaki."_

"Send the pictures now, since the videos will take awhile." She told him and leaned back in the chair to stare at the ceiling. There was a chime sound a moment later, telling her that the pictures had been sent. She sat straight up and brought her left hand up to the mouse pad of the laptop and opened the file, only to find close to a hundred photos in the file. With a sigh she began to go through the file, deleting most of them as she went because the people in them were not interesting, until one caught her attention.

She pulled her hand away from the mouse, breath caught in her throat as she brought that hand up to touch the screen. The photo was of a teenage girl with tri-colored hair standing with the blonde woman in lavender, but the picture captured her familiar violet eyes and the curl of her lips. "Meskhenet." The woman at the desk whispered breathlessly as she ran her finger down the face of the picture, but paused. "Your completed the Puzzle, yet you are not afraid." She added out loud, gritting her teeth and pulling her hand back as if burned by the image on the screen. "He was supposed to lash out at whoever finished the puzzle, he was supposed to push you away in his anger!" she shouted, getting to her feet suddenly as the chair hit the floor with a loud crash. "Fucking Pharaoh! How dare he ruin my plans again; how dare he dig his claws into her again!" she snarled placing her hands on either side of the computer and leaning over it. In her anger, and stuck in her own thoughts, she missed the knock on the door and than the opening of said door.

"Are you alright?" someone asked, but she did not look up to acknowledge his or her presence.

"Yes, just a family matter." The woman replied as the person at the door looked a little uneasy but closed the door and decided not to press matters.

"I will free her from you this time around, Pharaoh, I will not let you corrupt her again." The woman promised as she relaxed a bit. "Once I am finished, you will not have to worry about these trivial things. I will keep you from the world, shield you from everything like the treasure you are."

**End of Duelist Kingdom Saga**

**

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****A/n:** Well, not sure how many kept up with my long winded revamp, but thanks. Part one of two is finished. I will be taking two weeks to an entire month break on updating, since I need to figure out what to do with "Legendary Heroes" and "Dungeon Dice Monsters", which will be the next two chapters, and setting up Battle City in both chapters. I have changed things, rather noticeably, in this next part, since I attempted to stick to Duelist Kingdom as much as possible.

Thanks for your reviews and your time!


	14. INTERLUDE: ENTER SATOU YAMI

A trouble arose with the Legendary Heroes Arc-- it became too long and kinda took its own form, not to mention brought its own issues to light. So, due to its length, I will be posting it as a seperate side story, since it can stand alone from WMHH, TC. Because there is not much in this Arc that is of interest, so all I did was make the original beginning I had for that first chapter this interlude and the rest will be posted later. This beginning introduces both Battle City and Atemu to the world.

So enjoy this little interlude.

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**INTERLUDE: ENTER SATOU YAMI**

With the end of Duelist Kingdom in the last week of November came the publicity that followed, luckily Kaiba had extended a line of protection to his long time friend and things had finally returned to normal in January. Anzu continued to cause troubles for Yugi, but was generally ignored since her ranting and raving had gotten on the nerves of everyone in their class and outside of class and she gave up. Jonouchi had began to work at the Shop, causing Grandpa to do a little dance at the fact he had a new employee, and found that he rather liked his new part-time job and stayed on even after he was told he had paid back everything in two weeks. He had stayed on because the money he had paid for the rest of his sister's operation, which took up all but sixty thousand seeing their mother and her family already had the rest of the money, and now he was earning the extra cash to get her something nice once she recovered and to prepare for college.

It was only with Kaiba Seto that things had been rough for. With the end of Duelist Kingdom, and the return of his soul, he had found that there was a plot within the old board of KaibaCorp, the Big Five as the media and such called them, to throw him out and take over. Pegasus failed, but Kaiba did not let them know because he did not have enough information to publicly destroy them. He played ignorant for months, splitting his time between creating a virtual reality game and dragging Yugi with him to teach her about computers and what he wanted her to do for him.

Now it was nearing the end of March and before anyone knew it was the beginning of the Spring Vacation, to be particular it was the first Saturday and first day of break, and the sun was already up. Atemu, in his physical form, ignored the sun in favor of hugging Yugi closer, like she was a teddy bear, with his back to the window. "When did we agree to this?" Yugi grumbled as he laughed.

"When you gave up kicking me out of bed because I stayed against the wall." He muttered, getting comfortable again as she was silent. The kicking of Atemu out of her bed had lasted till the beginning of February, when Grandpa got curious about why he did not hear a the traditional 'thump' that had been adopted as his early morning wake-up call since Yugi returned. Unfortunately for them that was the same morning that he had walked in on them, in the middle of an odd wrestling match about who would stay in the bed and who would not. All he had seen was the aftermath, which was Atemu smugly sitting on Yugi's back as she was preparing to roll over and send him off the side. Luckily, Yugi had taken many pictures of Atemu being chased around the living area above the shop by her angry Grandpa welding a large umbrella, for future laughs. By lunch, they had told the older man the entire story of the Millennium Puzzle and Grandpa, in his oddly cheerful fashion, had accepted everything and had gone as far as declaring them to be formally betrothed, seeing Atemu had shared Yugi's bed and he wanted to continue seeing his Granddaughter. That followed with some of his own things— clothes, shoes, some jewelry, some knickknacks, and such— bought with some of the money Yugi had won.

"Why was that again?" she asked while turning to face him with a sleepy frown as he grinned at the cute picture, bringing his right hand up to run his fingertips over her cheekbone with a smile of his own.

"When we agreed on the rings." He answered as his hand came to rest on the back of her neck and he continued to stare at her. The rings in question were just simple gold bands with puzzle pieces engraved on them and rested around their ring fingers, since she forced him to wear one to show that they were both committed.

"Don't think you are going to have an easy time since Grandpa said that he did not mind so long as you stayed a gentlemen, Atemu, and I am not that easy." She muttered turning her face into her pillow, declaring the discussion done, as he chuckled.

"I wouldn't expect it any other way." Was his final statement as they laid in silence for a while longer, enjoying the rare lazy morning and the fact that no one was shouting for help or the shouting that usually came from Kaiba and Jonouchi's soon-to-be lover's spats.

"Yugi! Seto is here and wants to speak with you!" Grandpa shouted in warning as she groaned and sat up as he rolled away from her, stealing all the sheets.

"Lazy." She muttered and set about getting her clothes and heading to the bathroom.

Kaiba knew that something in the Motou Household had changed, beside the blonde that worked part-time and gave him new reason to drop by. He entered the living area of the shop just as Yugi entered in a pair of faded flare blue jeans and a gray tank top that had a black spider web across half of the front, putting her hair up in her typical bun. "What brings you here on this should-be lazy morning?" she asked, eyes glancing at the clock on their VCR where the numbers red 9:30 in red.

"A few business matters." He stated as she motioned for him to sit down, meaning he took the closest end of the couch as she headed towards the other end, but he stopped her. "You should get the laptop I gave you, the most important of the matters I have already sent to you." With that he sat down as Yugi got back to her feet and made her way back to her room, returning with a black leather shoulder bag.

"What's so important that it could not wait till a decent hour?" she muttered as he took the case and laid it across his lap, unzipping it. Yugi sat down as he handed her a dark blue laptop that had the KaibaCorp symbol on the cover and was the rest was black, the adapter followed as he got up to move the one table and plug it in as she opened the top and pressed the power button. He sat back down, situating the black adapter on the floor, and plugged said adapter in to the back of the computer as Yugi shifted so the object was resting on her knees.

"I am going to be personally testing out a portion of a virtual reality game that I helped to design, so it was easier to drag you out of bed." Kaiba stated as the main screen came up, followed by several screens that showed the stuff he had sent her. "I sent the basics of the game section I am having tested, the set-up for players, and such." He stated pointing to one as she double-clicked on the gray bar and stared at the 'pod' drawing for a moment.

"Pod people?" she asked as he glared at her, but kept his temper in check.

"Everything is there, so read through that because if anything happens you will be responsible for either getting me out or caring for Mokuba and taking over the corporation." He added as she sat ramrod straight and slowly turned her head to stare at him, face frozen in shock.

"What?" she got out in a voice that was a bit high pitched as he sat back, left arm across the back of the couch and the right on the arm of the couch with his head tilted back.

"I had my lawyers put that into my will and such after Duelist Kingdom, since you are pretty much the sister I never had but appreciated none the less." Kaiba stated in an odd tone, one that made Yugi feel very uneasy. "I realized that after the failed date."

"I hope you have some good business friends if that day comes, because I am not business oriented." She muttered and turned back to the screen and clicked on something else. "Battle City. Is this the distraction, beside what you have with Jonouchi, that you have been nursing to blossom?" He blushed a bit, but still watched as she started to skim over the text. "You got everything to begin this?"

"Yes." He stated as she sat back, hands resting on the computer's keyboard as she stared at a drawing of the in-progress duel disk. "All the government red tape is already done with, the lists compiled, the disk drawn in that file is already in its final stages and I want you to help me test them over the course of the next two weeks." Yugi looked rather shocked at how much he had been working on.

"And?" she pressed as he smirked.

"I want to participate in my own tournament, that is a conflict of interests. Therefore I want you to run Battle City, with the backing of KaibaCorp, since you do not have that conflict of interests." Kaiba told her as she glared at him, tapping her fingers lightly over random keys. "We are rivals in the public eye, you show me no mercy."

"Kaiba…"

"I also know you do not like to duel for personal gain." He added as her facial expression looked pained.

"Kaiba…"

"I have allotted you a small budget and pay for doing this, since you will be using your own time." He continued as if she was not trying to figure out what was better— running away screaming or hitting him with the laptop.

"Kai…"

"I also already put you down to do so." Was Kaiba's final comment as he was already on his feet and out the door as she sat the laptop down and made to follow, but ended up standing in the middle of the living room.

"In that case, I'm going back to the safety of my bed." She muttered pushing the top of the laptop down till it clicked shut, than she picked it up and carefully crouched down to shove it under the couch, and than made her way back to her bedroom, where Atemu was still sprawled out in her bed. She slipped into bed, ignoring the fact she was still wearing her jeans.

The rest of the day had gone rather well. Yugi had crawled back out of bed by eleven and was followed by a well rested Atemu, who donned a pair of black jeans with an open white dress shirt that showed off his tanned chest rather well with his usually spiky hair pulled back in a stolen hair band. At that point she had gone down into the game shop to help Jonouchi and Grandpa while he lounged on the couch for the rest of the afternoon, reading a book he had snatched from Yugi's collection titled "Sahara" by Clive Cussler. It had been agreed upon by all parties that Atemu would help out in the shop during the weekdays, while both of Grandpa's helpers were at school, and if anyone asked he had graduated early from school in Egypt and that was all there was. It worked out pretty well.

Around five he watched as Yugi entered the living room, toeing off her worn flip-flops and than leaning against the wall with a worn look. He marked the page he had been on as she shook her head. "Would you like to join Katsuya-san and I for a movie night?" she asked as Atemu quirked an eyebrow in surprise, mostly because it was the first time she had invited him to join one of their movie nights and this weekend would be the fourth time they had gotten together for something of the sort.

"I would love to, my Hikari." Atemu replied with a smile as she nodded and slowly made her way through the living room and into the kitchen to prepare for the movie they were about to watch. "Rough day?" he asked as she moved things around in the kitchen.

"The kiddies that wanted specific cards, or a duel, or something. Jonouchi is about the same, but I think he is scared of the small fan following he gathered from being in second." She answered as the door into the living room opened again and the blonde boy slipped in and removed his shoes, not noticing that he was not alone in the room. This was the first time Atemu could truly observe the boy, since every other time he was tainted by his raging emotions from being released and regaining his power.

Jonouchi had forgone the school uniform he wore during Duelist Kingdom and was wearing a pair of faded, wide leg blue jeans that had torn knees and seen better days with a faded black shirt that had a rather disturbing image in white on the front with 'Dir en Grey' at the top. He thought that the shirt did not fit the person, but did not comment since he did not know who or what 'Dir en Grey' was. His blonde hair was not combed to the front and into his eyes, but was down in a wind blown style that made him look like he had just got in a fight with a storm and won.

"Hey Yugi, any idea what we're watchin'?" Jonouchi asked out loud and with a yawn, hand coming up to cover his mouth but he froze when he seen that he was not alone. An uneasy silence settled over the room, only broken by the rapid popping of something from the kitchen and the sound of ice being put into glasses. "Um, you do know that there is a half naked guy in your living room… right?" that came out a bit weak as Atemu laughed at his worried and confused expression.

"Don't mind him, he doesn't bite… unless provoked." She shouted from the kitchen as Atemu grinned in response to that, baring white teeth as the blonde gulped and moved to sit in Grandpa's recliner, away from the teen on the couch. "You can try to take him home if you want." That got Jonouchi to shiver as Atemu's grin widened a bit.

"That's alright, he's deffinately not my type." He replied and awkwardly sat straight up as the popping continued.

"What is your type, Katsuya-_san_?" Atemu asked, emphasizing the honorific as the teen shivered and looked away with a slight blush.

"Yugi, the movie?" he called out in a strangled voice and stared at the other teen.

"I'm partial to Indiana Jones tonight. What say you?" she answered as Jonouchi finally relaxed a bit, the topic of conversation averted but he still did not feel safe with looking away from Atemu.

"Sounds fine to me, never pass up a chance to watch a Harrison Ford movie and watching a Bond flick would be a bit boring now." He remarked and got up again, this time quickly crossing to the small entertainment center and crouching down in front of it to search for said DVD. "Next time Advent Children." That got a laugh as she entered the living room, balancing a medium sized tray that had three glasses of iced tea on it with a medium sized, blue plastic bowl in the center on her left palm and a matching bowl in her right hand.

"Maybe, but any more if I listen to 'One Winged Angel' I imagine him and wonder about my sanity." With that she sat the tray on the floor in front of the couch and than sat down as Jonouchi put the DVD in and retreated to the safety of the recliner, only after stealing a glass of tea and the bowl of popcorn she had been holding.

"And who would this 'him' be? Cause, I don't know him well enough to call him 'Aspiring Sephiroth' or any of the clones." Jonouchi dryly stated as he grabbed the remote from the table by the recliner as Yugi grabbed the last bowl of popcorn and offered some to a curious Atemu.

"Well…" she started to say as Atemu took the bowl from her and sat it on the ground, which was okay but he than grabbed her wrist and pulled her over to him so that she was sitting in his lap blushing. The movie started, but Jonouchi's jaw dropped and his eyes also looked ready to bug out.

"I am Satou Yami, Yugi's fiancee." He stated in a perfectly calm and collected voice as the remote hit the floor.

"Holy hell." The blonde stated sitting back, staring at them as the opening of _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_ started. "When did you get engaged?" he asked looking over the couple, noticing that Yugi was still blushing and looked a bit unsure of herself while he was grinning.

"The contract between our families came into effect about a month ago, but we have known each other for a few years." Atemu, now Yami, smoothly answered as he kissed her cheek, after which prompted Yugi to shift so that she was lying across his lap like a cat.

"Things are gonna get interestin' now, considerin' you look like the imaginary guy Mazaki is obsessed with. The one she seen in her freaky dream on Pegasus's island." Jonouchi remarked as he shrugged and turned his attention to the movie. "Does Kaiba know?"

"Not yet." Yugi answered this time as the blonde was now snickering. "Careful, Jonouchi, you'll be present for that because I am going to use you as a human shield or sacrifice."

"Damn." He muttered with a pout as Yami shook his head, repressing the urge to laugh.

* * *


	15. DARK DATE

**I. A DARK DATE**

_This desert rose__  
__Whose shadow bears the secret promise__  
__This desert flower__  
__No sweet perfume that would torture you more than this  
__And now she turns__  
__This way she moves in the logic of all my dreams__  
__This fire burns__  
__I realize that nothings as it seems__Sweet desert rose__  
__This memory of hidden hearts and souls__  
__This desert flower__  
__This rare perfume is the sweet intoxication of love_

_Desert Rose,_ by Sting from the album "Brand New Day"

* * *

Nearly a month passed since that March weekend when the Big Five had been fired due to their attempted murder of Kaiba Seto via a virtual reality game. All those involved in the event— Yami, Yugi, Mai, Jonouchi, Kaiba, and Mokuba— decided to never talk about the event ever again. On the note of Yugi and Yami's engagement, both Kaibas had yet to come to terms with it. Now it was now nearing the end of Golden Week and schools were out, allowing students to get a chance to prepare for the new school year that was on the horizon. They day had begun rather well with the sun shining and the clear sky, but several things were about to darken it. The events of this day also began in the afternoon…

Twenty-year-old Isis Ishtar, who was a rather beautiful woman and exotic by Japanese standards, and permanently tanned skin and aristocratic features that brought out her slightly tilted, water blue eyes lined by black kohl, as well as her full lips that were always set in a serene smile. Her black hair was straight and fell over her shoulders to the small of her back, only the front had two locks bound in golden tubes that brought out her features. She wore a white dress that went to her ankles with billowing sleeves and was trimmed in black lines that were an inch wide and formed a ladder pattern. A circlet sat around her head, holding a green gem on her forehead, with the Millennium Tauk, which consisted of the gold and black Eye of Ra in the center of a gold ring and flanked on both sides by two gold pieces that were rounded at the top and curled away from the eye. At the moment she was sipping some tea at one of the many cafés in Domino City with her younger brother, sixteen-year-old Malik Ishtar.

He looked nothing like her. His hair was platinum blond, rather spiky and falling around his shoulders and into his lavender eyes, with a dark tan like his sister with his facial features sharper at the chin and eyes. He wore a lavender tank top that showed the four golden rings around each bicep, with jeans and black sneakers. "What are you up to? Usually you are bitching up a storm about daring to leave Egypt for the outside world and such, just like that bastard that called himself our father, than suddenly you wanted to come to Japan." Malik demanded as his eyes narrowing at Isis, who was still calmly sipping her tea.

"Admitting my wrongs." She told him with a small smile, sitting her cup down, and acting like that answer was all there was to it. Malik looked rather suspicious, but that was only because he did not trust her at all.

"What in the world are you doing?" they heard a girl ask, but the did not see her right away. Malik glanced to his right and seen a darkly tanned teenage boy with spiked hair, the tips blood red around the jagged edges with the rest black and his face framed by golden blond bangs, with sharp crimson eyes. He wore black leather pants with a wine red, button down dress shirt; around his neck was a black leather collar that protected his neck from the leather strap that held the golden Millennium Puzzle around his neck. He was leading someone behind him, since both of his hands were behind him and he could see the hints of a second person. On whim he briefly glanced back at his sister and seen that she was gritting her teeth, looking ready to attack the teen.

"Sugoroku-jiisan told me that today would be a good day to take out on a date, my Hikari. Considering our usual stalkers are off dealing with their own errands." The teenage boy stated with a grin, drawing Malik's attention back to the couple, as he let go of her hands so that he could move to his left side and pulled a chair out for her. Some gentle prompting he guided her forward by slipping his hand into her own. The girl was rather pretty, at least to him and after being surrounded by mostly men for half his life, even with her hair was colored the same as the boy's, only it was down and falling to her thighs with the ends curled, as a black blindfold covered her eyes. She wore a dark red dress that had string straps, a tight bodice to her waist and the skirt flare out to her knees with roses around the hem while her feet were clad in brown sandals that brought out her legs.

"Grandpa, I am so going to get you for this in October." She muttered to herself, shaking her head. "And the dress?" she continued as he pulled the blindfold down so it hung around her neck.

"It took me awhile to find that, even with Mai's help, and you look very beautiful." He purred and kissed her cheek, causing her to blush, automatically sitting down as he moved around to sit across from her.

"It can't be." Isis his sed out as Malik did turn to her this time, noting that her serene demeanor had fallen and was betrayed by the fact that her hands curled into fists and she was biting her bottom lip. "He was supposed to make her fear him, not woo her!" she hissed out as a waitress came over and took their order. The girl was a bit stiff, as if uneasy with the obvious date she was on, but he noted that she was relaxing little by little as a conversation began.

"You know them?" he asked sharply, not liking the anger his sister was showing. Usually when she started to show emotions like this, the Ghouls would make their entrance and people would either be killed or turned into her puppets.

"He is, possibly was, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle and she was the one I sent the puzzle to with the intent of her solving it." Isis hissed out as she got to her feet and walked around their table towards the table where the couple sat, having just given a smiling waitress their orders. Malik took in a deep breath and let it out, standing up and reaching back with his left hand to pull his wallet from his left back pocket. He had some things to do now and he did not want to watch his sister try and meddle in things she should not. Opening his wallet he pulled out a few hundred yen and dropped it on the table, quickly leaving.

Yami, who had his elbows resting on the edge of the table with his right arm flat against the table and his left bent at the elbow with his left cheek pressed against his palm, did not like the woman that was approaching their table, but he did not show it since he finally managed to get a date without the usually escort in the form of Kaiba Seto or Kaiba Mokuba or even Jonouchi, who was probably doing so on Kaiba's orders. He jumped a bit when he felt Yugi reach across the table and rested both of her hands on top of his right hand, the smoothness of the ring she wore making him smile as he looked her eye, noting that she was a bit worried since he had been staring o ff into space. He blushed and sat straight up in surprise before cracking a small smile, bringing his left hand down on top of her hands as the light caught the ring on his hand. "We have a guest, my Hikari." He whispered as she drew her hands back and looked over her shoulder at the smiling young woman in white with dark hair, who was by Yugi's chair.

"I apologize for interrupting, but your lovely friend here reminded me of someone I once knew back home." she stated laying a hand on Yugi's bare shoulder, causing said teenager to shiver at the cold touch. Yami kept a pleasant smile, but it was obviously a bit forced, and he gritted his teeth a bit as the other woman's hand lingered too long. After a few moments, Yugi politely shrugged off her hand as the woman was still gazing down at her with a fond if not borderline lustful look.

"Oh?" Yami stated as he noted that his date was definitely uneasy about the woman's presence.

"She was a very beautiful person, inside and out, unfortunately she made a bad decision that was her downfall." The woman wistfully answered as she laid a hand on Yugi's shoulders again, only the tri-color haired girl slipped away by getting her feet.

"Yami, I will be right back in a moment I need to use the bathroom." Yugi stated a bit abruptly and went off while he allowed his false pleasantness fall and glared openly at the older woman, who was staring after the retreating Yugi.

"It seems I will have to make those coffees to go, since you have not only unnerved my Hikari but invaded her personal space." He mused, tone cold, as he pushed back from the table just as the waitress returned with the order. "Miss, could you please make those to go?" he asked as she smiled, turning to do so while he reached back and pulled his wallet from his right back pocket.

"You will not drag her down like you did before, you bastard." Isis hissed out as she met his glare with one of her own, crossing her arms over her chest and daring him to make a scene. "She will be mine this time around." With that Isis spun on her heel and stalked off just as the waitress returned with the two Styrofoam cups, which she sat on the table, as Yami paid her.

Yugi was sitting on a bench that was across from the café's entrance, watching as the unknown woman stormed out and Yami followed moments later with a cup in each hand. He sat down by her and offered her the cup in his left hand and wrung a smile from her as she carefully enclosed both of her hands around the cup, and his hand. "I'm sorry, I usually don't do that but she made me feel…" Yugi trailed off with a shiver as he slipped his left hand from the cup and carefully slipped an arm around her shoulders while she stared down at her cup.

"Don't worry, my Hikari, I will guard you as well as one can." He told her as she nodded, not realizing that he had sat his cup down on the bench and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. Her cheeks were red with embarrassment as he pressed a kiss to her temple. "That woman is dangerous, but I am more so."

"I hope you are right, Yami." She whispered into his chest, and than winced. "Can you let me go? Your pyramid is digging into my stomach." She stated as he drew back, keeping his left hand on her shoulder while the other slide across the nape of her neck and down her shoulder to rest on the small of her back.

"Better?" He asked carefully pulling his left hand away in order to pick up his previously neglected coffee, unsure of how to break the awkward tension between them after that disturbing meeting. The other issues he had was that he was very unsure of Yugi's tolerance for public displays of affection and his own insecurity was that he could remember that his first wife hated his touch and presence and he could barely remember anything about his second wife. "This date is so you can relax, since you have been working so hard on Kaiba's tournament." He blurted out, hoping that he was not making things worse. He may have been pharaoh at one point and the envy of men all over the kingdom, but he was still rusty on how to handle women and things ha d changed greatly since Egypt.

"How did you get everyone tied up to do this?" she asked, tilting her head to the side with an eyebrow arched in question. Yami felt his heart speed up as a breath was caught in his throat when Yugi suddenly leaned against his right side, head on his shoulder as her left hand, which was stuck between them, carefully pushed the Millennium Puzzle to his far side. As he slowly let out the breath he had been holding, he smiled and slipped his right arm around her waist, resting his hand on her hip while they just sat and watched the world pass them by with the occasional sip of coffee.

"Sugoroku-jiisan was most helpful." Yami stated cryptically as he lowered his coffee cup to rest against his left thigh. "He is a rather devious old man, he knew just how to arrange things. It was almost creepy." Even as this moment of peace settled over the couple, it still seemed like their date was ill fated because something else was about to happen to break it up…

* * *

While Yami and Yugi's date slowly progressed after the meeting with the creepy Isis Ishtar an older woman, whose birth name was Banafrit but now she went by Beryl, was feeling the skeleton fingers of longing and depression gripping her heart. This woman was by no means old, in looks, since she stood nearly six feet tall with knee length, wavy red hair that was left free. Her complexion was fair and flawless and her face was highlighted by her full lips, aristocratic high cheekbones, and her sharp crimson eyes. She wore a simple white linen shirt that was off the shoulders and had straight sleeves and a scoop neckline with an ankle length red gypsy skirt. Those that seen her on the street thought she was a foreign model on holiday, others wondered if they had a chance of asking her for a date but did not take the chance once they seen a spark of intelligence and darkness in her crimson eyes.

She paused outside the display window of a local bookstore and peered in at the display contents, not really seeing the newest fiction books that were on sale with some sort of stuffed animal. Her mind always turned her back to the past, to the pain that she had experienced both before and after her brief times of happiness. The first happy moment was when she had asked for a blessing on her son before he was born, quickly followed by the second moment when her son had finally been born, both of these events were overshadowed by the hatred she had for her husband when he told her that when the boy was weaned and speaking she would not see him again. The third moment was when she had formed a close bond with a woman that moved to Domino City, a rather amusing female photographer that had reminded her of changing time. Following that happiness was remembering when she was pacing outside the maternity ward with her friend's nervous husband while her friend gave birth to two healthy babies in June. Unfortunately the pain that came after that happiness dwarved her hate for her husband, considering that fact that her friend and her son had disappeared only to leave behind her murdered husband and their near dead daughter.

If Beryl had not been the Queen of Darkness, and presently the ruler of the Negaverse, her friend's daughter had died that night instead of just gaining a scar. That night Beryl had asked the old gods that blessed her child for revenge for her friend's family, since it was torn a part, and offered what was left of her control on the Shadow Realms. She never knew if it happened, but her connection to the Shadow Realm faded years later.

Shaking her head to dispel those thoughts, she turned and took a few steps and was back into the flow of people and was still trying to force her mind to calm down and focus on what needed to be done and where to begin. Her thoughts were literally derailed when someone crashed into her, causing her to land hard on her butt as a black haired teenage girl was sprawled out across from her looking a bit embarrassed while her boyfriend, or maybe boy that is just a friend, with long dark haired helped her to her feet. "I'm so sorry!" the girl quickly stated with a blush while offering her a hand up, that made her smile and wave off the help up as she got to her feet herself. She noted that the girl and her friend did not take offense to her waving off the aide. They were roughly a foot or so shorter than she was.

"It is fine, child, no harm has been done." Beryl assured the teen in a deep, yet warmly accented tone with a fond smile as both teens nodded. "It was practically my fault, anyways, since I was staring off into space." She added with a small laugh as they both relaxed a bit, but Beryl could see that the girl would not accept just that but her friend broke the awkward tension.

"Yugi?" he asked as both turned to stare where he was and seen a couple with tri-colored hair approaching. They were holding hands and the boy was shocked, but not as shocked as Beryl who recognized the face of the teenage boy that was smiling.

Before the accident, thirteen-year-old Tomoe Hotaru was thinking about how things had changed for her in the short months she knew Kaiba Mokuba. He had transferred into her class and dazzled many with his smile and wit, Hotaru suspected that most of the girls were dazzled by his name more than the boy before them but that just gave her more of a chance if he would not run with the crowds that hated her. One day when some girls, and a couple boys, were picking on her at lunch he had stepped in and stood up with her despite her reputation and publicly said that he did not care what they thought. After that they had become fast friends, the bullies left her alone and he did not care that she could heal with a touch. Several times she blushed as he held her hand or helped her through one of her fainting episodes, but it was nice to have someone there that did not ask for anything in return.

Blushing in embarrassment at having lost herself in her thoughts she got up and quickly brushed some dirt off of her one piece black dress she noted the red haired woman looked a bit depressed, but did not have time to say anything about it because Mokuba had something and they were all staring. "Yugi!" Mokuba shouted waving a hand as the couple picked up the pace and stopped beside a surprised Beryl. "You!" her friend stated pointing at the tri-color haired boy with narrowed eyes.

"Mokuba, he is my fiancée… I hear it is normal to be out together in public." Yugi stated with a grin as Beryl felt like she could not breath. The scene before her reminded her so much of the past, so much of that brief time when here son was truly happy and in love despite the circumstances around his second marriage. On the other hand, Hotaru was just a bit confused to how Mokuba knew this couple.

"Mokuba-kun?" Hotaru asked in a meek voice as he turned toher and blushed this time, obviously caught up in the moment. He brought his hand up to run through his spiky hair as the tri-colored haired boy chuckled.

"Sorry about that, Hotaru-chan." He stated with a nervous laugh before turning serious, which made the black haired teenage girl giggle. "Tomoe Hotaru, I would like to introduce you to my adopted older sister Motou Yugi and, unfortunately, her fiancée Satou Yami." He stated in a formal tone that turned bland at the end of the introduction, showing his displeasure at the last part but Hotaru still found it amusing. No one noticed Beryl covering her mouth with wide eyes.

Mokuba noted that Beryl looked a bit pale and was staring at his friend and Yami, but he shook it off as surprise and would let the woman come to terms with it herself. He glanced at his darkhaired friend and seen that her eyes had gone wide and she pointed at Yugi. "Wicked! I never thought I'd get to meet the King of Games herself!" she declared with stars in her eyes as Yugi gave a nervous laugh, mostly at having been caught.

Meanwhile Beryl was caught up in the fact that her son had taken the surname of Satou… He had taken the surname she went by all those years before! That made pride and happiness blossom in her once cold heart as they turned to her in question, Mokuba and Hotaru blushing together this time, creating a cute picture of embarrassment, because they had not introduced themselves or asked her name. "My name is Satou Beryl." The older woman replied as Mokuba blinked a few times, mind whirling while Hotaru tilted her head to the side.

In the moments after her introduction, Beryl was caught in her thoughts. She had not expected to see her son in a physical form, released from the Puzzle that he had been bound in for so many millennia. On that note she had never seen her son so relaxed, so happy! Even when he had found love, in the past, he had been tying himself in knots protecting her and the kingdom from the old enemies. She blinked a few times, took in a couple deep breaths, and focused on the conversation that was taking place despite missing most of what had been discussed but it did not really matter to her since her son was standing before her and smiling!

"No, I don't really duel or anything like that. The only reason why I am interested in Duel Monsters I because I like it when someone proves that age does not really matter in most things and any barrier can be overcome in almost any situation." Hotaru explained, obviously in answer to a question to her interest in Duel Monsters Beryl figured, looking rather nervous for having expressed her opinion, but all that happened was the fact that Yugi was grinning while Yami nodded in agreement.

"You have a firm head on your shoulders than." Yami stated with a nod as the girl turned to him, Mokuba staying silent in the background. The younger teenage boy knew that Yugi was testing the waters of his new friend, getting a feel for her and if there would be any conflicts with his older brother when the time came to introduce them. So he would stay silent for now and watch Yami, who looked nervous about something for some reason. What Mokuba did not know was that Yugi had already picked up on Yami's uneasiness…

**Yami?** Yugi mentally asked as she pretend to listened to something Hotaru was telling her about the school she and Mokuba attended.

**My Hikari, do you trust me?** He asked solemnly as she was silent for a moment.

**Only as much as you trust me, Yami.** She replied and felt his amusement.

**I know this woman from my past; she is one of the few that I remember without issues.**He told her as Yugi physically nodded, as if to something Hotaru had said, while Yami stood toe-to-toe with the frozen woman. **I believe this woman is really my mother.**He added as the link was cut, obviously because he wanted their discussion to be private and Yugi could respect that.

"So, bringing this conversation full circle, why do you believe that age does not matter?" Yugi suddenly asked, causing both teens to blink at the abrupt return to the beginning of the conversation. "What? I'm curious and it is something to talk about as we head back to the game shop." She stated as Mokuba looked worried that they were leaving Yami behind with the older woman.

"What about…" the black haired boy trailed off as Yugi reached out and ruffled his hair, getting a glare.

"Possibly a family reunion, kid, best to give them some privacy." She stated as he pouted and turned to lead the two teenage girls back to the shop, missing the fact that Yugi gave Yami a brief wave with a nod while said red-eyed young man looked grateful. "Now, my question…"

They were about five feet away now as Yugi tagged them both on the shoulders shouting 'Tag!' and took off running, causing both to take off after her. That game lasted, with the occasional needed break, all the way to the Kame Game Shop, where they encountered a bored Jonouchi who decided to sit them all down to watch 'D.N.Angel.'

* * *

Beryl let out a few deep breaths as Yugi, the girl that her son had declared himself to be betrothed to, led the two younger teenagers away from them. _"Mother, is it really you?"_ he asked in Ancient Egyptian, testing her to see if she was really who she was. Her heart was pounding furiously as she took a step forward and threw her arms around his shoulders, than began to sob into his shoulder. He stiffened, at first contact, but than relaxed and brought his arms up, his left hand pressed against the small of her back while his right was rubbing comforting circles between her shoulder blades.

_"My blessed son, you are truly free? You are truly here now and this is not a cruel dream?"_ she asked, breath hitching ever so often as she pulled away and looked him in the eye, tears streaming down her cheeks as she brought a her trembling right-hand up to touch his left cheek. She noted that his usually hard eyes, hardened by hours of politics and stress, were relaxed and a small smile curled his lips.

_"You are not dreaming, Mother, we are truly awake and here now."_ He replied as she hugged him again, this time whispering thankful prayers to Osiris and Ra for reuniting her with her son. She than pulled away and tried to compose herself as he offered her an arm and they set off in the opposite direction of the game shop, towards the only park in Domino City that had a small river running through it.

_"What inspired you to take the surname of _Satou_?"_she asked after a few moments and with a frown, which was caused by the tight grip she had around his forearm. The park was now within view, but Yami was a bit on edge because he was unsure of how his mother would take what he would tell her.

_"I seen the name on some pictures that Yugi had in her room from her mother."_He answered after a few moments of silent deliberation, and guided her down the first path they came to. Her grip loosened as Yami silently thanked the gods that she did not ask why he changed his whole name, he did not think he could handle his mother if she became angry at his decision to practically forsaken the name the gods had blessed him with. Than again, she had forsaken her own name for Beryl. _"Such beauty, even if it is not as exotic as the royal gardens once were."_ He commented, deviating from the given path to a large tree. He slipped his arm from his mother's and sat down, she followed a moment later and tucked her feet under her and her skirt around her legs.

_"The royal gardens were a gilded cage, I much prefer these old trees and grass. Your father tended to those cursed places more than he tended to our people and it was the people, at that time, that needed the care more!"_she spat out as Yami sighed and watched his mother's lovely face twist into a disgusting look. The topic of his sire, Yami could never bring himself to call that black hearted man his 'father,' was always trouble and brought up bitter hatred and boiling anger in both his and his mother's hearts and minds. _"I have traveled the world, watched as civilizations rose from the ground and than fell to ashes only to raise again. I watched as things changed, evolved, and became what we now see. In all that time I missed you, blessed Atemu, and my heart has always ached even if my tears ran dry."_ She suddenly stated as he smiled at her and offered her his hand, which she clasped in both of his own.

_"I have missed your guidance and presence, as well Mother, but I have only realized that recently when my mind was fully coherent again and not running off of its primitive ways."_ He told her as she looked confused and a bit afraid, which made his heart flutter a bit. He had missed the care of his mother, the woman that had stood by him through everything and had tried her best to make sure he was happy.

_"What do you mean?"_ she asked bringing his hand to her lips as he sighed.

_"I spent so long in darkness that I lost everything, my memories and mind were scattered with the isolation an d my body and heart were in pain… so much pain."_ He admitted with a shiver and turned his head to stare at the sparkling river in the afternoon sun. _"Than the puzzle was complete and my power lashed out automatically and ripped the soul from the person that completed it. My first meeting with Yugi was after I ripped her soul from her body and brought it into the Shadow Realms."_ He admitted as Beryl gasped, her hands tightening around his own limp hand. He did not flinch at the sudden pressure, nor did he look at her as he continued his recollection. _"She was so strong, she did not submit to what I wanted. After I returned her soul I was, and still am, possessive of her. Not once did she show fear, even when I forgot myself and accidentally inflicted pain upon her body without realizing it."_ He continued to tell her, face slack as he recalled what he had done in those early weeks without though, as his mother gasped at the admittance.

_"She must have seen something in you, Atemu, because she did not run from you or shut you out like other women would have."_ Beryl stated as he tilted his head back, eyes shut with a calm look on his face as she let go of his hand, which he pulled back to rest in his lap. _"You looked so happy on that bench with her. I have never seen you so happy, so carefree before. I almost thought that you had been reborn instead of bound."_

_"In a way, I have been reborn, Mother."_ He stated and flopped back, lying in the grass with his eyes shut. Beryl felt her chest loosen as he brought his hands up, lacing them together and slipping his hands beneath his head. _"I chose another name, am living the life that I never would have thought, in a world that is not my own, just like you have."_ He admitted as she nodded, resting her hands in her lap and turning her gaze from her relaxing son to the river.

_"So true." _She whispered as a silence fell over them, only broken by the sounds of voices that were far off and the sound of animals in the trees.

_"How did you survive this long, Mother?"_ he suddenly asked as she sat straight up and squeezed her eyes shut. _"I have no idea what happened after a certain point, my memories are a blur, but it should be near impossible for a person to live so long without making some sort of deal."_ Beryl knew he was not accusing her of anything and she should have anticipated a question of this sort from him, since he had always been a person that was suspicious of everything. Too many years of dealing with assassins, poison, political machinations behind his back…

_"My lust for revenge kept me alive, as well as accepting the power of the Negaverse… of the true Darkness in place of the powers I lost."_ Beryl admitted, eyes still shut so she could not see her son's eyes or feel tempted to run away from him. She had never explained to him the circumstances around his birth or why his father was so harsh with his teaching; despite the fact the man had no right to be involved with her son's educations upon the decree of the gods and High Priest. _"I broke what I taught you, but watching as everything degenerated made me want to inflict the same pain and suffering on the one who helped perpetrate it."_ She admitted, leaving out the rest and getting right to the heart of the matter.

_"Is that why you are here in Japan?"_ he asked as she slowly opened her eyes and seen that he had sat back up and was turned so he could stare at her, his eyes were not cold or even blank but had a hint of respect… for her. Beryl bit her lip as she felt pride welling up in her heart; pride in the fact that her son did not reject her for her own decision.

_"I am here because they are here and in a weakened state, just like in the past. I want history to come full circle."_ She answered, almost mumbling because that meant their time together was cut short yet again. _"Soon I will attack them and put to rest my anger. I will not give this up because they deserve it."_ She vehemently stated as he let it drop. Beryl wanted the Sailor Scouts to feel the same pain she and others felt when her son had lost his will to live with the murder of his second wife… The memories that she could never reveal to her son yet since she had his memories of that powerful and kind woman removed. He would have to remember on his own terms, or when that woman made reappearance.

_"Than let me show you what I have learned about this city." _Yami stated getting to his feet and offering his mother a hand up, causing her eyes to widen a bit as he smiled brightly at her. _"We may not have all the time in the world, but I want to make the best of it while I can."_ He stated as Beryl accepted his hand up and hugged him again, once she was on her feet, and buried her face into his shoulder. She would hold on to him while she could and watch as he enjoyed life. All she hoped to do now was make and immortalized as many happy memories as she can with her son while she could.

_"What are we waiting for than?"_ she asked and pulled away with her own smile.

* * *

It was rather late, around eleven that evening, when Yami returned to the game shop and found that Yugi had fallen asleep on the living room floor, curled on her side, with the laptop open and papers scattered around her. Slipping his shoes off, Yami noted that Grandpa had gone to bed while she waited up for him and he felt rather touched that she was worried about him. It made him smile because they had tried to stay up and wait for him to return, it was little things like this that made him feel like he really belonged in the world. "About time you got back." He heard Yugi mutter, still half asleep, as she sat up and ignored the face that her hair was falling around her shoulders in a bedraggled state.

"Sorry, I got caught up in showing Mother around." He replied carefully tiptoeing his way through her spread of papers so that he could sit on the couch behind her. Yugi sat back between his spread legs as Yami began to brush his fingers through her hair. "She was happy that today was her lucky day."

"I am happy, I haven't seen you smile so much in awhile." Yugi remarked as he leaned down and kissed the top of her head, enjoying the scent of her hair.

"Thank you for not being jealous of another woman." He teased as she pouted and tilted her head back to look him in the eye.

"I trust you until you break my trust, Yami." She replied and brought a hand up to poke him in the forehead as he nodded, pleased that they had a similar understanding of one another.

"So, did anything exciting happen here while I was out?" His question got a snort from her as she stayed in her sprawled out position.

"Besides the entertainment of watching sweet Hotaru and Jonouchi nearly getting into a full blown fist fight about which character was more of a bad ass-- Phantom Thief Dark or Psycho Angel Krad? Not really, there was the one self-absorbed jackass named Otogi Ryuuji who stopped by after everything left. He challenged me to a game of his own making that he oh-so proudly called Dungeon Dice Monsters." Yugi told him as he frowned at the mention of the challenge, but mentally he was snickering at her description of said boy. "I told him that I don't like dice games because its like playing Uno with two people. He than accused me of chickening out and that I did not deserve the title…"

"He insulted you?" Yami growled out as she laughed, reaching up with her left hand and patting him on the head like he was a dog.

"To which I told him I was in the middle of a game already and that I had no time to play dice games with an ego driven boy." She finished as he laughed, glad that she had a sharp tongue to go with her mind.

"I'm still going to make his life hell for implying that you were too chicken to accept a challenge." Yami told her with a grin as she sighed. Let Yami have his fun plotting the demise of someone, considering the fact that Otogi did announce that he was transferring into Domino High and that his father had opened up a game shop on the other side of the city. "Dungeon Dice Monsters?" he asked her with a frown as she shrugged.

"If Dungeons and Dragons and Duel Monsters had a bastard love child, it would be Dungeon Dice Monsters." Yugi stated with a snicker as Yami shrugged and left it at that.

* * *

**Modified/Rewritten: 7 September 2008**

**A/N:**All that went on was a smoothing of Beryl and Hotaru's appearance, since I did pretty crappy the first time. This is actually a "third time is the charm" chapter cause the first failed, the second was the prospective rewrite that had two original characters in place of Hotaru and Beryl, and viola! Version 3!

A good many delightful ideas wrapped in this series come from my **beta, S2Teennovelist,**who picks up on things I don't and suggests a good many. For example: Beryl's friend, the idea of having Yami consider himself "reborn," a few of the nicknames for the unsavory characters… Well, that is the ones we remember right now. A whole list will be released in a chapter sooner or later…


	16. ARE YOU HALLUCINATING?

**Here is Dungeon Dice Monsters!**

* * *

**J. ARE YOU HALLUCINATING?**

_I'm stuck inside  
__Can't get this done, wish I could hide  
__This scene is really such a pain  
__I just can't see  
__This work is drivin' me insane_

_It's on my mind  
__I think I'm runnin' outta time  
__This waitin's more than I can take  
__That clock is slow  
__It's never gonna let me go  
__This time I need more than just a break_

_All I really want is to get away_

- _How Much Longer? _From the album "Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie Soundtrack"

* * *

As their last year in high school began in April, things pretty much began the same with Anzu and her crew as they tried to make it seem like they were on the top of the hierarchy by causing troubles for any that they believed was below them— another words practically everyone. Katsuya Jonouchi and Kaiba Seto had began to hold full conversations in public just to freak out students that had known them both for awhile, the first day of classes they had a full discussion on the difference between Eastern Dragons and Western Dragons and several students thought the world was going to end. With that budding relationship, even if both deny it, Motou Yugi had taken to playing several hands of Gin Rummy against a rather amused Bakura Ryou, who had finally broken out of his shell, while they listened to the conversations of Jonouchi and Kaiba. Classmates also realized that Jonouchi and Ryou and a firm truce with Kaiba and Yugi, which made them all start to wonder what would happen this year.

Only this year they had two new faces in the class. The first was Ishtar Malik, transferring from home-schooling in Egypt since his older sister had taken the job as the curator of the Domino City Museum, and he stood near fix foot tall with wild platinum blond hair that fell into sharp lavender eyes that were lined with black kohl eyeliner. He looked uneasy in the school's summer uniform of a short sleeves white button down shirt with blue pants, which showed off the gold rings around his neck, but his uneasiness could also come from the stares of the girls in the class. The other was Otogi Ryuuji, with his black hair bound in a ponytail and a red headband that kept his bangs back, and he was grinning and winking occasionally at all the attention. By the end of the week Malik had become the cool bad-ass of the class and Otogi had gravitated towards Anzu's group and flirted with the brunette to the ire of Hiroto, who still had a crush on said brunette girl but had been forgotten by her.

Things passed quickly and before anyone knew it was the first weekend in June, the specific day was June 4, and events had been put into motion. Yugi had left the game shop before dawn, slipping out of their bed without disturbing him and leaving behind a note that said where she was, and it worried Yami about how much time Yugi spent on this project Kaiba left in her care. He did not like the fact that, once school began again, she seemed to be more tired and driven to work long hours with her homework now. This coupled with the fact that Yami had felt his mother's presence fade from the living plain, which had him worried but he figured she had died how she wished to in the end.

At the moment, he was listening to Grandpa chatter on about the day. "You could always force her to sleep normal hours." Grandpa suggested that morning, when Yami joined him around nine that morning for some tea.

"That would go over real well, I prefer being whole." He remarked with a shiver, knowing full well what Yugi would do to him if he dared to do that. He would wait until she could not fight back to make sure she rested, at least than she would see reason.

"Be it as it may." Sugoroku stated as he sat a mug of tea down before Yami before he sat down across from the teenage boy. "What are you going to do today, since she is at KaibaCorp running herself ragged?"

"I will leave after Katsuya-san arrives for his shift and pay a visit to a particular young man that has been giving my Hikari some issues. She has enough with this project she is obsessively working on, the added issue of a boy pitching a tantrum like a child is not needed." Yami stated with a devious grin as he picked up his mug, ignoring the weary look on the old man's face. "If he wishes to make a big deal about the fact that my Hikari did not accept his challenge than he must face me and win in order for her to even think about accepting his as being serious."

"That is a large gamble you are taking." Sugoroku muttered as he looked down into his mug, than sighed in resignation. "Just don't do anything illegal, the police will not accept the answer that you are a reawakened Egyptian Pharaoh that is set on marrying my granddaughter and just looking out for her well being." The older man stated in a defeated tone as Yami smugly sipped his tea. He would be discreet in what he did, for the sake of the Motou family, but that did not mean he would go easy on the boy that dared to insult his hikari.

* * *

At the same time that Yami was enjoying his tea, Kaiba Seto had arrived at the Domino City Museum by way of his driver and bodyguard Tanaka. "This seems rather set-up, Kaiba-sama." Tanaka stated as he stood just behind Kaiba, who decided to forgo his usual long coat and wore a dark blue dress shirt that buttoned down the front with black dress apnts and shoes.

"You think?" Kaiba sarcastically asked as he glared at the roman columns that made up the front pantheon façade of the building with its large banners that declared that a new Egyptian exhibit had been put in place. "Some crazy woman calls me from out of the blue and tells me some information no one but two others should know, both of which do not discuss that in the open, and tells me to meet her here? I would say it was the Big Five's attempt to take me out after they were fired." He added as Tanaka nodded seriously at that statement.

"What would you wish me to do than, Kaiba-sama?" he asked as Kaiba sighed.

"Stick close and be on alert, as always." The teenage billionaire stated and ascended the stairs to the main entrance as Tanaka followed, knowing full well that this was a bad decision but keeping quiet. They passed through the front doors in moments and stood in the lobby area of the museum where an unmanned ticket desk sat before them and two expansive corridors to either side, nothing set up to keep people in check considering the fact that it was an off day.

"Prompt as always, Kaiba-san." An accented voice stated as Kaiba glanced to his left at the dark haired and eyed woman that entered his line of vision, silent as a ghost with a smile of a devil.

"What do you want?" he snapped as she looked unfazed by his annoyance, if anything she smiled knowingly at him and motioned for them to follow her. "Hold on, I want some answers first. Just who are you and why should I trust you?" he growled out as she kept her smile.

"I am Isis Ishtar, the new curator of this museum, and I mean you no harm." She answered with a slight bow to Kaiba, who scowled while Tanaka felt like telling his superior to cut his losses and get out. "I just wish to tell you something that may interest you, considering the upcoming tournament you are running." She added and started to move down the left corridor from where she had came.

"Your information is wrong, I'm not running the tournament." Kaiba stated as she paused and turned to him in surprise. "I asked a friend of mine to run the tournament, since I am going to participate." He left it unsaid that the planning and running of said tournament kept her and Yami a part, since he did not trust him.

"I did not see that." Isis muttered and turned back around and led them through the corridors and into the new Egyptian Exhibit.

"Ishtar-san, I already donated to the museum and giving me an early showing will not get anymore money from me." Kaiba stated while Tanaka muttered something that sounded disturbing like, 'no exits, no windows… we are so screwed.'

"No, we are fine in funds." She stated, her tone sounding a bit stressed now, and came to a stop in front of a stone slab that had been encased in Plexiglas on a sturdy wooden pedestal surrounded by other artifacts of the time period. "This is what I wished to show you." Was her dramatic statement, waving one arm at the slab as Kaiba looked over it.

The main carvings showed a likeness of him in Egyptian attire facing off against a likeness of Satou Yami with the puzzle that he wore above their heads with three cards around it. The carvings of duel monsters and hieroglyphs did not matter to him, but it was the likenesses that made him uneasy. "I wonder it Satou-san knows about this, because it would explain why you both clash on any topic in conversation." Tanaka stated as Kaiba turned to glare at him while Isis looked confused by that statement.

* * *

With Jonouchi helping out in the shop, Yami had pulled on a tight tanned t-shirt that had a skull on the left side and a snake that went from hem through the skull and ended as his shoulder with a pair of faded blue jeans and sandals, with the Millennium Puzzle around his neck, and was out the door with his wallet in his back pocket. He had till four to do what he wanted, since he had the four to seven shift at the shop. His hair was spiked up as usual and stood among the crowds, which was his undoing since a certain brunette girl squealed and started to follow him like a lost puppy. "What now?" he muttered and finally turned towards her, getting tired of her following.

"You're the one I seen at Duelist Kingdom!" she declared pointing at him, causing Yami to frown. He did not remember her name, nor did he really care to remember her name.

"You must be joking, I was not at Duelist Kingdom." He told her with a frown and turned back around, continuing his trip towards the Black Crown with a detour to KaibaLand to check on Yugi. He left with this feeling that something had happened to her, since she was mentally muttering about things finally at an end and out of her hands and chocolate and something called _Secondhand Lions._

"But you were!" she protested as he sighed and just continued through the streets like she was not there. With a sigh he started to look at the window displays on his walk, only to pause in front of a book store that he and Yugi had always passed and she always stared at for a second longer than usual.

"No, I was home at that time… not even close to said island." He stated slowly and opened the door to the store, ignoring the jingling of the bells as he slipped in, hoping that his stalker would leave him alone. He glanced around, trying to figure out where to begin with his search, until a gray haired woman in nice attire of a dark pink blouse and a matching skirt greeted him with a smile.

"Welcome to _Scribe's Creed_, not as big and grand as _Barnes and Noble_but we have prints of things they don't, can I help you and your girlfriend today?" she asked as Yami glanced over his shoulder at the smiling brunette.

"She isn't my girlfriend or friend, ma'am." He stated as the woman looked embarassed. "My finacee rather likes your store and I am looking for a birthday present for her." He explained as he brunette froze and the older woman laughed.

"I apologize for my jumping to conclusions, sir." She stated as he shrugged. "What is your fiancee interested in?"

"Do you have anything for caricatures or drawing?" Yami asked as the old woman nodded and led him to a back corner while the brunette girl just stood in place for a few more minutes before she stalked off to the romance section of the store, which was in the front and would allow her to keep an eye on the boy she would have as her own.

* * *

Back at the museum, Isis was gritting her teeth and keeping her hands hidden behind her so that the teenage CEO and his bodyguard did not see that she wanted to strangle the former. It was not supposed to be this way! He should have been enthralled by her tale, if not determined to defeat the pharaoh, but he was questioning her at every turn and just disregarding the whole thing as a hoax. "Kaiba-sama, we could always ask Motou-san about what she is saying as well. He is still an Egyptologist and may have the proper means of checking out her story." Tanaka stated, glancing around at the rest of the artifacts, as Isis attempted to keep her mysterious smile on her face.

"Even if he could I wouldn't believe this." Kaiba stated with glare at her. "First off, history may repeat but ancient history is own to interpretation and I am interpretating this as pure and utter coincidence." He stated as Isis let her hands curl into fists, her nails digging into her palms.

"It is fated to happen again." She stated in a forced calm tone, her eyes narrowed in her annoyance as Kaiba shrugged.

"Second, I don't like psychics of any sort and the fact of this coupled with the information you told me is two strikes against you." He continued to say and turned to leave as Tanaka looked pleased with this decision. "Is there anything else you have to tell me?"

"Only that I wish for you take this card." She stated pulling her hands from behind her back, tucking her right hand into the sleeve of her dress and pulling out a duel monsters card as Kaiba turned to full face her again. "This is Obelisk the Tormentor, one of the three all powerful god cards. You will need it if you wish to defeat the Pharaoh in this life."

"What's the catch?" Kaiba demanded coldly and with a glare as he accepted the card from her, while avoiding touching her hand. To receive a divine card, one that canbe described as 'all powerful' at that, was one thing, but for free was a naïve notion.

"In this tournament that is being sponsored by your company, write into the rules that the winner of the duel is to take the rarest card from the deck of the loser." Isis stated as Kaiba twitched. He knew Yugi would not be happy with this decision and that the entire crew concerned with the rules would have to meet, again, and discuss how to word it and where to put it.

"I am not in charge of this, Ishtar-san, and there is no guarantee that this rule will be put in. I can press for them to do so, but the wording will not be as blunt as yours was." He remarked as she nodded, obviously pleased with herself. "Good day." With that he turned and led Tanaka out out the room, leaving Isis alone.

"Yugi-sama's reaction will be interesting." Tanaka mused as Kaiba shivered.

"I'll suggest it, but you know they are all cunning. With luck this rule will be very obscure and rarely used, or ignored." He answered as they made it, in record time, back to the entrance lobby.

"What about Yugi-sama's birthday?" the older man asked as Kaiba froze.

"Shit." He muttered and both exited the museum. "Grandpa probably has the cake or whatever taken care of, but what about a present?" Tanaka was ahead of him by a few steps and had the car door open, allowing Kaiba to slip into the vehicle, and hiding the grin that he had gained from the predicament.

* * *

Yami emerged from the store a half hour later with a large bag of wrapped gifts, which the kind lady had offered to do when he told her that he had accidentally waited to the last minute and received a large tip for doing so. The bad thing about that was the fact that the brunette followed him out of the store to and was trying to strike up a conversation with him, trying to find out the name of his fiancee. "Satou-san, how are you on this lovely day?" a familiar voice stated to his side, drawing him from his thoughts and causing him to pause and glance to his left at a grinning Tanaka who was leaning against the side of a black car with tinted windows.

"Relatively well, Tanaka-san, I suppose Kaiba-san is having troubles?" Yami asked as the older man snickered, his eyes briefly leaving Yami's face to stare at the girl behind him.

"You can say that, but the situation is amusing." He remarked and than glanced down at the bags on Yami's arm. "I can take those with me, since we will end up in the same place for the same reason."

"Thanks." Yami stated handing the bags over to Tanaka, who pulled a set of keys from his pocket and pressed a button to pop the trunk. "I had other things I wanted to do today and was hoping I didn't have to circle back to drop them off."

"No troubles." Tanaka replied with a cheerful smile as Yami glanced over his shoulder and twitched. "Do have fun today, because from the way is sounds Katsuya-san has a plan for the party tonight." Yami just laughed and turned to head straight down the sidewalk.

"Even better, a surprise!" he stated as his shadow continued to follow him. This girl was persistent and annoying, her voice grated on his nerves and he had half a mind to go find Yugi, drag her from whatever office or place she was in, and show how much he was devoted and loved said tri-colored girl.

Blocks passed quickly and he soon found himself standing in front of _The Black Crown_game shop, with its disturbing clown face on the front and gaudy front façade. Yami appreciated Sugoroku's subtle shop now, as well as the fact that it did not look like it should have been a casino or a costume shop more than a game shop. He entered to see Otogi surrounded by a group of girls, while a slightly overweight clown he had called 'Otousan' (father) moved about the shop creeping out several of the customers, who hurried past Yami and bumped into the brunette that was still stalking him to get out as quickly and politely as possible. "Creepy." He muttered to himself, knowing he had seen worse but still…

"The Queen of Games is a coward!" he proudly boasted as Yami titled his head to the side and moved to the right side of the shop, looking over the wares with a critical eye he had learned from Grandpa. Most of what he found was stuff for the game called Dungeon Dice Monsters, but nothing else of interest or any others games. "She refused to accept my challenge, which shows that she cheated against Maximillion Pegasus."

"I would doubt so, considering Motou-san told you that she does not accept challenges from those that seek to gain a title or such." Yami spoke up as all attention turned to him just as he turned to meet them all with a lazy stare. "Than again, now is not the best of times to be making challenges." Otogi was on his feet and pushing his way through the crowd to face Yami, to the old Pharaoh's amusement.

"What is this to you?" the black haired boy sneered as he gave Yami the once over as the overweight clown moved to stand by his son, eyes narrowed despite the grin that was painted, both literally and figuratively, on his face.

"This Motou-san you are representing, is that Sugoroku?" the clown asked as Yami shrugged.

"I mean Yugi, his granddaughter." The tri-color haired teen replied, noting the old man's eyes trailed down to the Millennium Puzzle and gained a greedy glint. Yami resolved to watch that man a bit closer, he did not like that look one bit. "Back to your question, Motou-san is working on something that is definitely more important than playing a game against someone that is obviously ego driven." He drawled out as many were whispering. "If you want her attention you will have to defeat me at a game of my choosing."

"Why's that?" a girl close to Yami asked, causing said teenager to grin.

"I am equal to Motou-san in the realm of games and if you beat me she will definitely accept your challenge." He stated, baiting his trap as Otogi's green eyes lit up. Hook, line, and sinker. Yami felt Yugi stir, probably because she had caught the tail end of his announcement.

**Yami, what are you doing?** She asked, sounding a bit sluggish and tired.

**Nothing too troublesome, my hikari, just settling some things for you.** He told her in a soothing tone as she was silent for a few moments.

**Thank you, thank you so much.** She muttered, sounding near tears and that made him feel a bit more worried about what was going on with her.

"What's the game, then?" Otogi asked as Yami tilted his head to the side with a devious grin on his face.

"The game I have in mind is best played in private, considering it is rather long and requires many strategic moves." He remarked, bringing a finger up to his lips and looking like he was thinking about it. "Noise is rather detrimental in this games, considering the fact that playing this game requires full concentration with no distractions. Are you still interesting in accepting my challenge?" The last part of that statement was said in a almost mocking tone of voice that was guaranteed to rub anyone wrong.

"Of course he accepts your challenge!" the clown sneered, as if Yami's insinuation that Otogi would not was below him.

"Who would you be to make such decisions?" Yami asked, attempting to keep his tone even and not deep and cold with annoyance. He barely remembered the last time someone had dared to act like this in the middle of a formal challenge, but remembered that things have changed since than.

"I am Ryuuji's father, you can call me Crown-san." Crown stated with his nose in the air as Yami shrugged him off and glanced back at the black haired teen, who was frowning at his father's actions. "Who would be the name of the boy that is going to lose against my son?"

"Satou Yami." Yami answered with a nod as many were now whispering at his back.

"Follow me than, Satou-san." Otogi stated as he moved through the crowd and Yami followed, ignoring the whispers as his unwanted shadow was stuck in said crowd and he disappeared into a back room.

* * *

As that game was beginning, Yugi was leaving KaibaLand after a long final check for the Battle City announcement, as well as anything else with the initial revealing. Kaiba had called and said there was a rule that he wanted to be added, or at least considered, and the entire team that she had assembled decided that any discussion can wait a few days, since the rules were not going to be officially posted till the next weekend. As she stood outside of the game park, ignoring the people milling around her, she brought a hand up to rub the back of her neck while staring at the cloudy sky. "Imagine meeting you here." A familiar, slightly accented voice stated as she let her eyes shut as a breeze reminded her that she was still awake.

"Bakura-san, nice to see that you are still alive." She stated opening her eyes and staring at him with a blank stare. Ryou was standing in front of her with a grin, only he wore a blue Hawaiian shirt over a white tank top with the Millennium Ring visible around his neck and khaki shorts and worn white and red sneakers. "I take it after avoiding us for the rest of the school year, you spent Golden Week in Hawaii?" she asked as he grinned.

"What gave it away?" he asked looking down at his attire as she snorted, but winced because such action reminded her of the headache that sat at the base of her skull and her exhaustion.

"The tan and the shit-eating grin." She remarked bringing her hands up to her hair and pulling the stylish wooden chopsticks from her bun and letting her hair uncoil and fall down her back. The pain of the headache was relieved just enough that she did not wish to sleep for the rest of the week.

"I could say the same for you, with the change of wardrobe." He laughed as she glared at him. Mai had updated her attire a lot, most of it made Yugi blush or cringe. She had blinding gotten dressed while Yami slept, so it was by pure luck everything matched because it was once she got to KaibaLand that she realized what she had pulled on. Several had commented that she was balanced because she wore a black pleated skirt with a silver chain that acted as a belt and was barely mid-thigh in length with white and black tights that had horizontal stripes and was tucked into knee high black boots that had buckles from ankle to knee with an un-tucked white dress shirt that was short sleeved and had a pocket on the left side. The fact that she wore a few silver rings with a gold ring made, the gold rings matching the thin bangles around her right wrist, his fingers twitch with the urge to steal them.

"Mai got a hold of me one day." She told him with a glare as he snickered. "Why are you here?"

"I came to find a challenge." Ryou stated as she walked past him, only to have him run to catch up with her. "May I walk with you?"

"I don't care, it's a free country." Yugi stated as they made their way down the street at a rather easy pace and in an easy silence. "What's the real reason why you are out?" she asked after a few minutes as he sighed, knowing he could not fool her.

"I felt a change is going to happen, focused around your boyfriend." Ryou stated with a grin, expecting a protest.

"Fiance." Yugi corrected as he paused.

"What?" he squeaked out as she paused and turned to him, about to say something, but that was cut off when she brought both hands up to her temples and screwed her eyes shut. No one stopped but he noted that she was in pain and was by her side, his right hand under her right elbow as he led her out of traffic and let her lean against a building. "Motou-san?"

"I can't feel his presence." She whispered as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, betraying the pain that she obviously felt. It was than the Millennium Ring reacted, the spokes of at the bottom rising and pointing in a direction.

"Than, let's go find him." Ryou stated, realizing that there was a true reason to why his Yami was restless and snapping at everything, grabbing Yugi's arm and following the direction the spokes pointed out.

At _The Black Crown_game shop, Yami had just finished disassembling the Millennium Puzzle and laying the gold pieces out on the table between him and Otogi, sitting the base with the leather strap in the center of the table and sat back with a smug grin with his arms crossed over his chest. Crown-san was standing at his son's back, one gloved had resting on the back of the plain wooden chair, with a disturbing grin still on his face as his eyes wondered over the pieces. "The challenge that I pose to you is to fully assemble this puzzle." He told the now laughing black haired teen while waving a hand over the assorted pieces. "My hikari did so, despite everything not being told about the dangers of such a challenge."

"All I have to do is put this puzzle together? Idiot!" he boasted and picked up the top piece that had the leather strap on it. "Can you believe that, Tousan?"

"Do not be too foolhardy, son, I believe that Satou-san has other motives." Crown-san stated as he leaned forward to touch the pieces, but drew back quickly and with a hiss as if he had been burned or stung. "This wouldn't happen to be the infamous Millennium Puzzle, the one that Motou Sugoroku had?"

"It is." Yami answered as Otogi picked up his first piece and attempted to fit it onto the base. He frowned and began trying every piece he could grab but finding that things were rather complicated despite how simple it looked. "This puzzle came into the possession of Motou Yugi, who compelted it herself, and than gave it to me after Duelist Kingdom."

"Son, if you finish this puzzle it is yours!" Crown-san jovially told his son, who frowned and looked confused but did not stop in his attempts to get a piece in place. "The Millennium Puzzle can only be completed by someone worthy of holding it and Sugoroku's stupid granddaughter passed it on to someone! You can do this and regain the honor of our family from that old swindler!" he continued on saying with a deep belly laugh, causing Yami to frown.

"You know of the puzzle's reputation and of Sugoroku-jiisan. How?" Yami asked as Crown-san scowled this time, the make-up making him look to be as wanna-be evil clown now.

"That old man cheated me at this very game." He sneered as Yami's eyebrows went up in question. "I wanted the Millennium Puzzle, so I challenged him to a game and he told me that if I cold assemble the puzzle than the puzzle was mine. I lost!" the older man all but shrieked as Yami tilted his head to the side. This man had attempted to assemble his puzzle before the proper time? He so hoped that Crown-san would try something, he so wanted to get revenge against this man now.

* * *

Ryou came to a stop in front of the store with a clown face on the front as Yugi was muttering curses under her breath, most of them revolving around his imminent death in colorful ways that had Zuka taking notes in his boredom. "Ick." She stated finally looking over the store as the white haired teen rolled his eyes and drug her into the shop against her will. People were milling around, mostly loitering, only to have Anzu pop up in their view, wearing an unflattering strapless yellow shirt with a short orange skirt while scowling with her hands on her hips. "Didn't know you worked in this creepy place, Mazaki." Yugi stated, blinking in surprise as Ryou groaned.

"Motou-san, when is the last time you remembered fuctioning like a human?" he asked with a weird expression on his face as Yugi glanced at him with a dead stare that did not fit her.

"I do not work here, I am waiting for the love of my life to re-emerge from a challenge he made on _your_ behalf!" she sneered as both stared at her this time.

"I'm not surprised." Yugi stated with a snicker, not entirely sure why she found this funny while they stared at her oddly. "I owe him for this, I owe him big for getting Otogi-san off my back." She added as an after thought as they both stared at her.

"Your Motou Yugi!" a girl stated in surprised as Yugi waved with a forced smile.

"Why did you turn down Ryuuji-kun's challenge?" another asked as Anzu waited for the excuse.

"I have been helping put together things for the Battle City tournament, which will be taking place during the Summer break this year." She answered without missing a beat as they gathered around her this time.

"You are hosting a tournament?" a boy asked as she grinned.

"KaibaCorp is sponsoring this tournament, but I was put in charge of organization and everything else." Yugi answered as they were all in awe. "This project is the biggest challenge I have dealt with and it will not be complete till the tournament is done." She added as they were all now discussing the upcoming tournament.

In the back room, Otogi was sweating heavily as both of his hands were shaking under an unknown pressure. It had only been ten minutes since he touched the puzzle with the intent of finishing it off and throwing this win in the face of the smug bastard across from him and he made little to no progress. A minute later he realized that his fingers refused to listen to him just as he dropped the top of the puzzle to the table, leaning over with tears in his eyes. "Is this what she felt?" he gasped out in pain, trying to keep his tone even despite the pain he felt.

"I am not sure, she never told me what she did feel." Yami answered with a smile. He knew that was a lie, considering he was the one that watched her expression after she completed the puzzle. Otogi had braced his hands against the table and was still leaning forward, trying to recover, and missed Yami's glare as Crown-san snatched what Otogi had completed and attempted to assemble the puzzle himself. This had broke the challenge contract he had been issued. "You are treading on thin ice, Crown-san."

"I will defeat this damned game!" Crown-san shouted with a cackle as he tried to force the pieces into place with a look of madness crossing his pained features. "No one can stop me this time, no one!"

Outside the room, Ryou and Yugi had managed to wade their way through the crowd of teenagers that were discussing the announcement of the new tournament. "Nice story to redirect them." Ryou told her as Anzu was shouting at people that refused to move for her.

"Its true." Yugi told him as his eyes widened. "It is going to be announced officially tonight, best to start the rumor mills now." They heard shouting behind the door, which ceased for a couple minutes, and than mad cackling that made them both shiver.

"Even _he _sounds better when _he _does it." Ryou muttered with a shiver, referring to the spirit of the Millennium Ring and not caring if Yugi understood or not. He watched as she opened the door and slipped into the room, which he followed and shutting the door behind them. He seen Yami sitting calmly while Otogi was sitting back in the chair, head lolling back giving him the look that he was asleep, and a man dressed as a clown cackling as he tried to assemble the puzzle.

"Can you disinfect gold?" she asked as Yami glanced at them and laughed at that comment.

"My hikari, could you please…" Yami trailed off as he lifted a hand an regally motioned to the puzzle as she moved forward so that she stood by the table's edge. Otogi snapped awake as she carefully pulled the top of the puzzle from Crown-san's hands and began assembling the puzzle rather quickly and without pause. "For breaking our challenge agreement, Crown-san, you must face a punishment of my devising since I am the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle." He drawled out getting to his feet as Yugi slid the last piece into place.

"Whoa." Otogi stated in shock as his father growled in annoyance.

"**_Mind Crush!_**" Yami snapped after Yugi handed him completed Millennium Puzzle, watching with a smirk as the clown fell backwards with unseeing eyes.

"I'll leave you two be, plausible denial and all." Ryou stated as he opened the door again and beat a haste retreat, not wanting to get in the way of an angry Pharaoh or to witness a scene that was becoming rather common between the two.

"Did you have a nice day?" Yugi asked her fiancee with a tilt of her head as he carefully wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Otogi just gawked, ignoring the fact that his father was out for the count, because he did not expect them to have _that_ type of relationship!

"It has gotten better, shall we head back home?" he asked her as she smiled and nodded.

"Sounds great, since I feel like I'm going to pass out." She admitted as he looked surprised. "Can we sleep in tomorrow?" was her question as they headed for the door and emerged into the still crowded shop, only Anzu was standing and waiting for them.

"I won the challenge." Yami told them as people seemed to shrug that off.

"Sorry, I told them something a bit bigger than your eventual win." Yugi sheepishly told him, brushing a hand through her hair as Anzu growled.

"He's engaged to be married, Motou, and once that falls through he is mine!" the brunette told them in a furious tone, causing the couple in front of her to stare in shock while those loitering in the shop had fallen silent at the confrontation.

"She's been itching to find out who I am in love with, followed me the whole day chattering like a monkey." Yami remarked with a sly grin as Yugi kept a neutral face for a couple moments. She than turned, raising on her toes, and locked lips with a surprised Yami as her hands came up to rest on his shoulders. In return, Yami enjoyed her show of affection by slipping an around around her waist and resting his hand against the small of her back.

They separated as many whistled or catcalled at the show, ignoring the fact that Anzu was now slack jawed. "I can last till we get outside the store." Yugi whispered against his lips as he nodded. "You'll have to carry me the rest of the way." She added as he took the lead, making sure they brushed past Anzu and through the crowd to be out the doors.

The shop had been closed early so that Jonouchi, Grandpa, Mokuba, and Hotaru finished their preparations for Yugi and Yami's birthday party. Yami's had been included, at the last minute, since they realized he had not told them when his birthday was and the fact that they may have missed it. Tanaka and Kaiba had thankfully arrived while both were still out, the former carrying three bag and Kaiba carrying none, and they had than sat down in two of the several folding chairs that had been set up in the living room. Yami returned about a half hour after Tanaka and Kaiba arrived and he was carrying a sleeping Yugi, which cause Kaiba to twitch and Hotaru to blush at the romantic scene. Yugi woke up with the commotion and was allowed to stand, only to find the double surprise birthday party that included ice cream with bananas and chocolate syrup, watching the movies _Secondhand Lions_ and _Phantom of the Opera_ back-to-back, and the company of good friends and family with all things about _The Black Crown_ left alone and never to be told to Grandpa.

* * *

**A/N:**Battle City begins next chapter… honestly. The scene with Yami carrying Yugi back was the idea of my beta, S2Teennovelist.

**16 AUG:** Ran spell check, due to issues, and fixed those errors as well as some formatting.


	17. WELCOME TO BATTLE CITY

**K. WELCOME TO BATTLE CITY**

_Do your memories haunt your dreams?  
Do they simply seem to have a mind of their own?  
Tell me what the emptiness brings  
Everything you know is everything but gone_

_Tell me who will save you  
When there's no one else around  
and you can't turn to me?  
Tell me where will you be?_

_You can't hold your world together now  
Everyone sees who you really are  
When your castle crumbles at your feet  
Don't you run to me_

- _"When It's Over"_ by 3 Doors Down

* * *

Within the month before the beginning of Battle City on July 27, which was a week into the Summer vacation, KaibaCorp had perfected and released their secrets to dueling in the streets of Domino City— the dueling discs that had been programmed with the new rules they released and a clear cards with varying outlined images on them called a locator card. Those had been snatched up by teenagers and participants so fast that it made the wait for the latest cellphone or gaming console look tame. With that release and Kaiba's requested rule addition, the one concerning the prize of the duels be the rarest card in a person's deck, had been added at the last possible minute with the intention of it being over looked, but they were not naïve to believe it would be.

The Battle City Board, with the addition of Kujaku Mai to make the numbers odd, had split themselves into two groups— Monitors and Umpires. The Monitors were responsible for keeping track of all those that had locator cards, to make sure that when the tournament came down to the end they would log the first eight duelists that either had six locator cards or the most, but that did not start till noon Friday. The Umpires would be out in the field observing the duels and making sure the new rules were kept to, that no one tampered with the disc programming, and making on the scene rulings in an attempt to top any cheating and to prevent what happened at Duelist Kingdom. Mokuba was the head of the Monitor group, since he would be safer there than in the field, and Mai was the head of the Umpires leaving Yugi to move freely between both groups.

It was around one in the afternoon on Monday, July 27 and Battle City was going full speed. Businesses, adults, and elderly people were happy that the Battle City Board had set aside certain places where the duels could take place, such as parks and parts of the city that were cleared to be safe, therefore not disturbing everyday life for those not involved. Malik Ishtar was registered to take part, but he was not going to go out on the first day of the week long tournament, he decided that no one would be able to get to six locator cards on the first day since they had nearly all week.

He entered the Egyptian Exhibit and seen that someone was standing in front of a glass exhibit case that had preserved papyrus scrolls in it, looking rather curious. She wore a pair of faded flare blue jeans over black flip-flops and a simple ribbed white tank top with a thin gold chain around her neck, but it was her waist length tri-colored hair that gave away her identity. "Motou-san?" he asked as she glanced up.

"Afternoon, Ishtar-san." She replied with a smile as he shifted uneasily under her gaze. He had never been good with girls, or crowds for that matter, considering he had been raised in isolation with only his demented father and sister as his company, later came Rashid and his group of small group of friends— the Rare Hunters. "Your sister put together a nice exhibit, but it seems to be lacking something." She commented as he relaxed a bit at her comment.

"Life." He stated as she quirked an eyebrow in question. "She based all of this around the stone tablet that no one understands and many write off as a hoax for how it is set-up." He added pointing to the large glass case against the wall, which Yugi moved to stand in front of as Malik stood by her.

"Archaeologists don't like it when modern things appear in supposedly ancient tablets." Yugi muttered as he shrugged and both stood, silently observing the tablet. "What did she tell Kaiba? He seemed to find it to be a bad joke."

"That he and someone that looks like that is destined to duel again." Malik stated as he pointed to the central figures, one of which was a likeness of Kaiba in robes and the other was Yami in his finery with their chosen two cards above them and than higher up was the Millennium Puzzle and three cards around it. He heard her snicker and looked a bit miffed as she covered her mouth.

"I'm sorry, its nothing against you or your heritage." She got out, now waving her hands in front of her as he relaxed a bit and waited for her explanation. "I can see Kaiba's issue, this is almost looking too modern for anything else plus it is in a time period of Egypt's ancient development that no one has true evidence of. I remember Grandpa talking about needing more information, more discoveries connected to this era before anything could be said about it."

"True." Malik admitted as he watched her shake her head.

"And, he looks like Kaiba and the other looks like a duelist named Satou Yami who holds the puzzle and the cards. I don't even believe in what you told me, nothing in this room can prove that what that tablet implies is true." She admitted with a shrug and turned to leave as he let her words sink in.

"Do you believe?" he asked as she paused in the doorway.

"Not really." Yugi answered as he let a smile cross his face.

"Good." He muttered as she went to leave, only to back pedal a and stand five feet from the entrance, hopefully out of the line of view, as Malik quietly ran around the middle display and stood by her.

"You were not to tell her anything of the puzzle!" Malik heard his sister hiss out as the two stopped in the entrance way. "I wanted the spirit to scare her, to make her hate him so that she would be easier to take from this life! But no, she openly embraces him and you went ahead and engaged them!"

"I told her absolutely nothing, Ishtar-san, like you said. To the engagement I meant that as a joke, thinking it was a passing fancy, but they took it seriously!" Yugi heard her Grandpa state in an equally cold tone. "I waited for when she was start breaking after the puzzle was assembled, but it never happened. Now he has his a physical form and has the paperwork to be a citizen of both Japan and Egypt." Malik realized Yugi was trembling, biting her lip and looking like she wanted to cry and interrupt the conversation.

"She is mine, Motou-san, not that bastard of a Pharaoh's. I will have your granddaughter and she will be my Nepha again, no matter the cost, and my GHOULS will help me accomplish that." Isis snapped out as Grandpa was silent. "There is nothing you can do to stop this."

"Just don't hurt her." He whispered as they both moved on, discussing business. Malik realized that Yugi was trembling and looked like she had just lost something important, her right hand now pressed against her mouth with her other hand over her stomach.

"I think I'm going to be sick." She weakly told him as he looked ready to panic. "How could he?" she whispered as he looked around for an exit. She shook her head and let her hands fall to her side before leaving the exhibit room like a zombie.

"Shit." Malik whispered as he went off to find a few of his Rare Hunters, it was obvious the girl would need someone to shadow her steps when she was in public. He could now let his sister complete her place, something in him just wanted to make sure Yugi stayed safe and the other part of him just wanted to piss her off as much as possible.

* * *

Kujaku Mai proudly made her way through the crowds of people, looking much like a model with the fact that her shining blond hair was bound in a long french braid with her purple eyeshadow bringing out her dark blue eyes. Many men and teenage boys stared at her hips as she walked past in her tight, black jeans that hugged her hips with the lavender lacing up the side and colored stitching at the seams while her chest was brought out by the tight black tank top and the lavender collared vest. She paused by one of the outside tables of _Summer's Knight_, the one where Yugi was sitting. "What happened, Yugi-chan?" she asked with a frown, noting that the usually laid back teen was hunched over her cold cup of tea with her elbows on the table and her hands in her hair.

"I still haven't come to terms to what I seen, not sure if I should be pitching a fit or sick to my stomach." She muttered as the blond woman sat down and folded her arms on the table, waiting for further explanation. "Grandpa is involved in something that concerns me, nothing to do with Yami." She muttered as Mai sat back with an unreadable expression.

"You need to get out for a bit." Mai stated as a smile curled her lips and Yugi glanced up at her with an odd expression. "My shift is almost over, I'll have Mokuba-chan pass a message on to Yami about picking up some clothes for you and we'll have a girl's night in!" she declared as Yugi blinked a few times.

"What?" she asked as Mai was already thinking of everything she would need to make her friend relax. "Gotta call Jonouchi tonight to see how the surgery went."

* * *

At the same time all of this was going on, Yami was walking through the sparse number of duelists with a feeling of immense depression and worry. He steadied himself and found that it was from Yugi, but she was trying to block it from him which was odd. He carefully tried to sooth the trouble and the depression lifted a bit but the worry was still there. **My hikari?** He mentally asked her as she shifted nervously.

**I will explain later, Yami, I promise.**She answered in a tone that was defiantly a bit broken, almost like she was close to crying.

**If you are sure, I can easily find you now and we can discuss it now…**he trailed off with a frown as he walked past Insector Haga, who was laughing his creepy laugh as he dueled a pensive boy that was obviously new to the scene of the tournaments. Than he passed a bored looking Ryuuzaki, who was going through his deck and inspecting his cards before searching out someone to duel while Mako tsunami was looking down at a kid that challenged him with an expression that could be called confusion.

**No, not right now… please.** She pleaded as he paused and glanced up at the sky. What was it that was making her so jumpy?

**As you wish, my hikari, but I expect** **answers tonight.** He sternly told her as she gave a sad laugh, but he knew she agreed.

"You look like a good sap to defeat." A rather crackly voice stated as Yami tilted his head to the left and stared at the man with purple hair that was spiked straight back, a gold hoop earring in his left ear, a scar tracing the left side of his jaw, as his eyes were blank and blue in color. He wore a long black robe with three gold chains in the front and was a rather freaky character, looking to be a cross between an escaped convict and a cult member.

"I'll accept that challenge, just don't preach about your cult." Yami stated as the man frowned at the comment and a few that were watching the challenge snickered. With that the tri-color haired teen walked a few feet from the man and turned to face him, activating the duel disc. The card deck's two pieces slid from their places on either side of the place where the deck was held, and where a counter was displaying '5000' in red, to the outside of his arm, spanning the length of his forearm and past his elbow by a couple inches to his fingertips with a bend at where his wrist was.

"I will claim your rarest card, you nobody." The man hissed out as both drew their five cards. "I already took a Red-Eyes Black Dragon today from some blond kid named Jonouchi, took him down in three turns." He boasted as Yami shrugged. It would not do him any good to get angry in Jonouchi's place, they were not exactly close enough to be friends in any way… if anything they barely tolerated one another, especially after 'The Legendary Heroes Debacle.'

"That's nice." Yami stated as he made a show of dusting off his khaki pants and adjusting his tight black tank top, showing that he was barely listening or did not care. It was when he was adjusting the Millennium Puzzle that the man growled, looking ready to say something, but Yami glanced at his hand and put one card face down in defense mode followed by two magic cards as the holograms of the cards appeared in two rows on the ground in front of him. "Trouble?" he asked with a smile as the man glared at him and looked over his own hand.

"You'll been in enough soon." The man stated with a Joker's smile, obviously pleased with what he drew. "I play Graceful Charity." He stated as Yami shrugged, it was a common move for people that had no suitable card in their hand to play in their own defense. The man drew three cards, appraised his hand, and than discarded the two cards to the far right to graveyard before contemplating his next move for a moment before placing a card face down in defense mode, watching it appear before him. By this point the two duelers were boxed in by curious on lookers, from duelers that were curious about the newcomer to people that had no idea what was going on but were chattering anyways as they watched.

Yami drew his card, making a split second decision to wait on activating either of his two magic cards, and looked over his hand for a moment. "I switch my defense card to attack mode." He stated switching the card to attack mode and face up, revealing Beta the Magnet Warrior with a yellow body and large 'U' magnet with colored ends sticking out of its head and hands, but Yami removed the card and put different card face down in defense mode. "I use Beta as a tribute for another card." With that he ended his turn as the man was still smiling in a creepy manner.

"I play Graceful Charity." He stated and repeated his previous action, drawing three and discarding two from the far rigth of his hand, before putting another card face down in defense mode. Yami noted the man looked even more pleased with himself and figured he was trying to draw the cards for something bad. "Your turn." He sweetly stated as man were whispering, especially those that had a good view of the odd man's hand.

**Assuming that he is playing high defense cards, hoping that I waste time and life points in discovering and defeating them, coupled with that smug look…**he mentally trailed off as Yugi stirred a bit in his mind.

**Someone that is grinning like Bakura-san in Gin Rummy?** She inquired, sounding a bit more relaxed than their first conversation.

**When he is collecting cards with the prospects of winning, but I have no idea what he is trying to draw yet.**Yami told her, remembering that shark look from the card games he observed through Yugi's eyes.

**Well than, best bet would be to attempt to piss them off in any way possible and force him to reveal his dastardly plot.** She stated with a mental shrug as he resisted the urge to twitch.

**Thank you for you input, oh wise Hikari.**He dryly told her as she snickered at his sarcasm and went back to whatever she was doing. With that conversation, Yami steeled himself and drew a card, stared at it for a moment and than decided to thank the Gods watching over him. "I tribute my face down card and summon the Summoned Skull in attack mode." He stated with a small smile of his, watching as the face down card dissolved and a face up card appeared and the purple and white bone armored Summoned Skull (atk 2500, def 1200) appeared from its image and hovered above the card. "Attack his second face down card." He ordered as a lightning attack hit the face down card, dissolving the image and sending the card to the graveyard. "Before ending my turn, I activate Time Seal." He added as the first magic card flipped up to show a ofuda, or scroll, with chains coming from it.

"What?" a young duelist asked in confusion as the man shrugged it off, not looking too bothered by this move. If anything he looked even more smug that before.

"My nameless opponent skips his next drawing phase, which means he goes right to the phases after that… if he wishes." Yami explained as the man glared and waved off his chance to put a card down, so Yami shrugged and drew a card. "I will take a gamble and play Lightforce Sword." He announced and put the magic card down and it appeared on the field, showing a card with a sword through it on the holographic card that appeared behind the Summoned Skull. "Which means I can chose a card from your hand to sit aside for three complete turns." He further stated as the man's smug smirk fell into a scowl.

"So? Chose!" the man barked out as Yami laughed at the impatience that had crept into the man's demeanor.

"Since you favor nothing to your right, I chose the second card from the left part of your hand." Yami stated with a grin as the man growled and pulled that card out of his hand and placed it in a special slot on the side of the duel disc. With that revealed the man glare at Yami's, who was not done yet. "Now I play Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts (attack 1500, defense 1200) in attack mode." With that Yami put the card down on the disc and a card appeared face up in the field and a lion like creature with a horn appeared hovering above the card with claws out. "Summoned Skull, attack his face down card." Was the next order as the card was destroyed, leaving the man wide open. "Gazelle, attack directly." Was the final order for Yami's turn as the hologram darted forward and slashed at the duelist, knocking his 5000 life points to 3500.

"You son of a bitch." The man hissed out as he aggressive drew a card and shoved it into the left part of his hand without looking at it and than drew a card from the center of his hand and put it down. "Activating Swords of Revealing Light." He stated as the swords of light appeared, separating the fields, while people were watching the duel continue on without so much as a whisper. Several high level duelists were a bit in awe, and suspicious, of the up and coming Yami. He than put a card in defense mode and ended his turn.

"This duel is rather tedious, isn't it?" Yami drawled out as he drew a card and placed it into the center of his hand. "You are not exactly that skilled, relying on chance." He continued to say, placing a magic/trap/spell card face down and ending his turn.

"So says a novice like you, **_Satou Yami_**." The man growled and drew a card, biting his lip down as he placed that one face up on the field as the face up card appeared with a floating disembodied that resembled the legendary Exodia. This was a play that he would eventually summon a high level monster, which was unlikely since he only had the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, but it did not matter because that action activated the last card Yami put down. That card flipped up to show three cards with chains going through them.

"Gotta love Chain Destruction, eh?" Yami asked as the Head of Exodia was banished from the duel all together, from hand and deck as well, crippling the man's entire deck and strategy in one go. "A pity your strategy leaves you open, since you are relying too heavily on actually drawing all of the pieces for Exodia."

"No, no one has ever beaten my strategies before her." he stated in a daze, eyes wide in fear as his turn ended and Yami drew a card, but he placed that in his hand and picked another card which he put down on the duel disc.

"I activate Monster Reborn and bring back Beta the Magnet Warrior in attack mode." Yami stated as the card reappeared with the little yellow magnet man, but the nameless duelist relaxed a bit.

"I still have another turn after this." The man stated as Yami raised both eyebrows at that naïve hope and drew another card from his hand and put it on the duel disc.

"I activate Dust Storm." The tri-color haired teen calmly told him as a storm ripped through the field, negating the Swords of Revealing Light as the man went back to fear, clutching his head while people were whispering now. "I'll assume that your only defense is nothing, so Beta the Magnet Warrior attack the face down card." He stated as the yellow magnet man darted forward and destroyed the card, leaving Yami's opponent wide open. "Summoned Skull, direct attack." The lightning arched into the sky and hit the duelist, leaving no mark by the diminishing life points—from 3500 to 1000. "Gazelle, direct attack." With that the Mythical Beast King swiped and the life points were at zero and the man was on his knees clutching his head and babbling about a 'master.'

"Kids today, taking card games so seriously." An older, business man muttered walking away as many decided to hang around. After the holograms disappeared, Yami walked forward and crouched by the trembling man that was now laying passed out on the ground.

"Weird." He muttered plucking the man's deck from the slot on his duel disc and than pulling the locator card from the bottom of where the deck was. "Cults, masters, and now brain dead lunatics." He grumbled and flipped through the deck in search of the Red-Eyes Black Dragon the man had been bragging about. He had found it, at the end of the deck, but something did not feel right on his fingertips. He held the dragon card in his left hand and sat the other man's deck down and brought his right to his eyes. "Ink?" he muttered with a frown as a Umpire approached him, obviously curious about what was going on.

"Problems, sir?" the black haired man in a simple blue t-shirt with the KaibaCorp logo on the front with jeans.

"I think this man was cheating." Yami told him and picked the deck up in his right hand and got to his feet, offering it to the official. "He put something on his cards, an ink of sorts I think." He elaborated as the man checked out the top few cards and frowned.

"He did." He muttered and glared down at the man, moving past Yami and bending down to remove the other locator card as Yami offered him the Red-Eyes Black Dragon.

"Wouldn't be right to take the spoils of war if they were not fairly gained in the first place." Yami stated as the man looked surprised. "Give it back to the previous dueler, I believe his name is Katsuya Jonouchi and I would like to request that you do not tell him who I am." With that he left the shocked and confused Umpire to stand by the fallen man.

"Well damn." He muttered, having to admire the honor or stupidity of a dueler that would do that in a tournament.

* * *

By time Yugi and Mai left the hospital, having headed over there after their time at the café, they had watched an Umpire greet Mai with respect and than give Jonouchi back his locator card and the Red-Eyes Black Dragon before leaving. Now they were heading back to Mai's apartment in Domino City, only because had Mai assured Yugi that she had some clothes that would be darling on her for the next day or Yami could bring her an extra set if needed. So began the Girl's Night In.

At the moment Yugi was lounging on a comfy dark purple couch in a pair of baggy white shorts and an over-sized red t-shirt that hung off of one shoulder with a spoon hanging out of her mouth. Mai was asleep on the floor, obviously needing her beauty sleep, while Yugi continued to watch _Chicago_ since she had no urge to find the remote. The room was dark, but the large windows across from the television let in the moon light, but the rest of the apartment was in shadows. **My hikari? **She heard Yami mentally ask, causing her to blink a few times, ignoring the dancing of women in fishnets and leather to him.

**How was your day?** She asked as he felt confused.

**Where are you?** He asked as she felt uneasy, but than found herself slumping back and into darkness.

Yami stood in the corridor with his arms crossed and only wearing a pair of baggy black pajama pants when Yugi popped her head from her soul room and looked around. "Here again?" she asked as he nodded and waited for her to emerge from the room, which she slowly did so as he blinked a few times and than his jaw dropped. "Hands in view, mister." She told him sternly as he blushed, since his thoughts were going that way.

"Are you safe?" he asked as she nodded.

"I'm staying with Mai tonight, she thought it would be best considering what happened at the museum." Yugi admitted as she gripped the hem of the shirt, bit her lip, and looked to the side.

"What happened?" he asked taking a few steps closer to her as she looked ready to cry again, still not looking him in the eye. He uncrossed his arms and brought his left hand up and cupped her chin, gently forcing her to look him in the eye. "Yugi?" he whispered as she suddenly hugged him, causing him to freeze for a moment in surprise.

"That creepy lady from the café, she was talking with Grandpa and… she said the Puzzle should have scared me and that I was her's and that Grandpa failed." She whispered and buried her face into his bare neck, holding him tighter as he wrapped his around around her wait and held her close while she started to sob. "He didn't even stand up against the woman!" she all but wailed as they sunk to the floor of the corridor.

Yami would never forgive Motou Sugoroku for this, that much the ex-Pharaoh knew as he held his sobbing hikari. He let her sob out her frustration, her betrayal, and her stress in the safety of his arms and swore an oath to himself that he would protect her as much as he could.

* * *

**A/N:**There ya' go, the intro to the entire deal. At the moment I am up to the Strings battle and trying to figure out the rest, since this line has deviated from the Anime/Manga (plus, the Manga is a bitch to find on-line for the early part of Battle City).

**03 AUG:** Added page breaks, upon request. Sorry about that.

**16 AUG:** Ran spell check again and fixed some errors. By this point I apologize to all that have read through these last three parts, I did not mean for it to be THAT bad. If you are wondering, I have not decided the capitalization of 'hikari' yet and I realized how... erratic I am with that note.


	18. FLIES IN THE WICKED WEBS

**L. FLIES IN THE WICKED WEBS**

_See the devil on the doorstep now (my oh my)  
Time is ticking and we can't go back (my oh my)_

_Lining up for the grand illusion  
No answers for no questions asked  
Lining up for the execution  
Without knowing why_

_It's all about power then (we are)  
Take control (we are)  
Breaking the rule (we are, we are)  
Breaking the soul (we are)  
They suck us dry till there's nothing left (we are, we are)  
My oh my, my oh my_

- _We Are_by Ana, from the album "Spiderman-2" OST

* * *

The next day brought many interesting things. Jonouchi was on the warpath for the kind act, since he had wanted to defeat the nameless man himself, so he was out searching for the person that had returned his locator card and Red-Eyes without any demands. In the end he ended up dueling Espa Roba, which was still going on at this point and time. Kaiba was up to four locator card and taking the day off, so he was back at his mansion doing whatever it was he did in his free time. Yami had three locator cards and had headed around mid-morning next day, frowning since Grandpa was not around for him to question, and found himself being stalked, again, by Anzu. Bakura Ryou had joined the ranks of the duelists that morning and already acquired two other locator cards, since several thought him weak. Throughout all of this Yugi and Mai were still lounging about the living room of Mai's apartment, enjoying the fact that nothing required their attention yet.

That left only Malik to think about, in the scheme of things.

At the moment he was carrying a simple black laptop, complete with the adapter cords, towards the third room in the spacious apartment that he had no other choice but to share with his psychotic sister and his unofficial keeper Rishid. This room had locks on the outside of the door, to lay to rest Isis's paranoia, and made him shiver when he thought of everything his father and sister put the room's occupant through. "I will tell you if she is close." The deep, calm voice of his adopted older brother Rishid stated from the vicinity of the kitchen, where he had been cooking some lunch for them.

"Thanks." The blond stated as he undid the locks but paused before he opened the door. Rishid was older than him by a good eight years, having been with his parents before he was born. Most of his childhood had been filled with the elder's resentment about being the true son of their shared father, but one night that stopped when his father had cut the marks into his back and his screams echoed off of the walls of the underground home. After that Rishid had come to terms with his stupidity and finally took the oath that he had made to Malik's mother to protect her little boy seriously, going as far as to tell Malik about the oath he had taken and why he was now being serious.

Shaking himself from his thought, Malik carefully pushed the door open and stepped into the bare room, staring at the healthy, if not pale, woman who sat on the floor in a thread-bared white dress that covered her entire body as her dark hair was pulled bun in a long braid. She was back to making origami creatures and people to pass the time, which made him pity her. She had been a prisoner of his family since he was born, he heard his father say that it was because Isis told him it had to be done that she was staying as their prisoner. "Afternoon, Youko-san." He stated as she glanced up at him, her dark brown eyes making him feel uneasy.

"It is nice to hear your voice again, Malik." She stated as he carefully sat the computer down and searched out a plug in the room, finding it behind the wire framed bed, and plugging it in as she looked a bit confused by this.

"I thought you might want to know about what is going on, since Rishid and I have been planning." He explained, sitting by her and pulling the laptop into his lap and opened the top and turned it on with the press of a button. "Plus, Isis is busy with her own agenda with this old man as her lackey." Youko, the prisoner, looked curious by that statement but did not ask any questions.

"What have you and your stoic brother been up to? Ever since this move neither of you have not visited as often." She remarked as he blushed and clicked on the Internet icon and did not look up at the older woman he sat beside, who was watching as the Internet browser came up.

"School and a few other pressing matters, mostly trying to prevent Isis's dastardly plans." He told her as the Battle City website loaded quickly. "This website was created so that duelers and families could track duelers, as well as looking into basic profiles of the high ranking duelers." He explained and clicked on the tab that was marked, 'Tournament Organizer.'

"Why are you showing me about the organizer?" Youko asked as he shifted a bit, tapping his fingers on the open space beneath the keyboard and to the sides of the 'mouse' pad. A moment later a picture of a group of people popped up on the screen, in the middle was a tri-color haired teenage girl in dress clothes. "Yugi?" the woman whispered in shock as Malik scrolled down, through text about the tournament and its sponsor, to the bottom where they had a picture of Yugi playing a card game with someone that had been cut off.

"I am in class with her and remembered you mentioned a 'Yugi' in our discussions." The blond boy stated as the woman brought a trembling hand up to touch the screen, but her fingertips never made contact.

"She's grown so much…" the woman whispered as he turned his head and seen that she was silently crying, looking like she had either lost something or gained a new hope. "She is running the tournament?" she whispered as he nodded.

"If everything works out, you will be able to meet her in person." Malik stated with conviction as the woman threw her arms around his shoulder and started to sob, releasing years of repressed emotions.

* * *

After shaking off the lethargic morning Yugi had snuck out of Mai's apartment and back to the Game Shop, leaving only a rather interesting note in her place and when Mai read it the blond was grinning like the cat that caught the canary. It had taken her an hour to finish a quick shower, getting dressed, and grabbing a light lunch she was back out in the streets of Domino City heading for the largest of the Battle City zones. "Motou-senpai!" a familiar voice called out as the girl paused and turned to look behind her, spotting a grinning Hotaru running towards her while a pink haired girl with red eyes and hair in cones followed with a frown and a… floating ball.

"Hotaru-chan, you can call me Yugi if you want." Yugi stated as she crossed her arms over her chest as the black haired teen blushed. It was thant eh older girl noted that Hotaru was not wearing her usual black attire, but a nice pair of brown pants with a light blue shirt that had a glaring black cat holding a baseball bat on it and white lettering below the cat reading, 'Caution: Dangerous Black Cat Under Pressure.'

"Yugi-senpai." Hotaru amended with a blush as Yugi grinned.

"Yugi-chan works, too." She stated as the pink haired girl was glaring openly at her while Hotaru nodded happily. Yugi's eyes slid over to her as she kept her smile, not wanting the little annoyance to know she was winning.

"Why do you dress like that?" the pink haired girl demanded as she tried to look intimidating while wrinkling her nose in disgust. Yugi had decided to wear a pair of black jeans that had several rips spaced out from mid-thigh to her ankles over a pair of purple tights with a dark red tank top that had black skulls around the hem, not to mention her black boots and her trusty messenger bag. Her hair was loosely bound in a bun at the nape of her neck as she still wore her usual rings, all in all she was decent to be out in public.

"Cause I want to." Yugi answered with a shrug, ignoring the fact that the girl wore a pleated blue skirt that went to her knees with the typical sailor top, the color in the same blue as the skirt and the bow was red with an odd brooch in the center. "What brings you out here this lovely day, Hotaru-chan?"

"Well." The dark haired girl started with a smile, but her eyes shifted to look at her pink haired companion in concern since she was still glaring at the older teen. "I was hoping you knew were Mokuba was. I wanted to introduce him to Chibi-Usa before everyone else."

"He is over at KaibaLand, I was making my way over to see what up before telling him to go out and have fun." Yugi stated as Hotaru's eyes lit up. "How about this, I shove him out the door and you kidnap him."

"Perfect!" Hotaru whispered with her hands clasped in front of her.

"What would Puu say?" Chibi-Usa pressed as Hotaru frowned and glanced at the girl with a rarely display of annoyance.

"We can have that discussion after Battle city, if you put Kaiba to anything at the moment he is more likely to make your life a living hell." Yugi stated as Hotaru tilted her head to the side. "If you get in any trouble, Hotaru-chan, just tell them who to see." With that Hotaru took the leader position in the group and set out for KaibaLand, only they missed their black cloaked stalkers.

The trip had been relatively uneventful, but Yugi could tell that a rift had opened up between Hotaru and Chibi-Usa over the pink haired girl's attitude. It had taken them ten minutes to get Mokuba to go out and take a break, which Hotaru did by using the infamous 'Puppy Dog' eyes attack, the one only cute and barely teenage girls could pull off, and drug him out of the control room to the giggling of a few women that lamented about 'young love.' About a half-hour passed before Yugi felt bored and was about to leave, but Mokuba's second-in-command stopped her. "Motou-san, you best be careful." The man stated as she frowned, looking a bit confused.

"Why?" she asked as many looked uneasy.

"There have been some issues with some of the duelers, those that the Umpires spoke to said that they called themselves 'Ghouls' and they served a 'Master' that wanted something." He continued to tell her as she nodded, but it was nothing to be that worried about. It was just someones elaborate way of winning by using a loophole that they had not closed in their rules, but it was not like the group had caused any physical harm. "We have no idea what they will do to accomplish whatever they are up to, but they have been targeting some of the high level duelist. You may not be involved, but Duelist Kingdom…"

"I'll try to be careful." She stated and left, but those present could not help but feel a bit uneasy.

"Bring up Motou-san's locator card, we best keep an eye on her just in case." The man stated as several immediately did so, having a purple dot added to their large screen that showed varying colors— blue to the Umpires; red, green, yellow, gray, and black to the duelists and their ranks in the KaibaCorp computer.

* * *

Back with the Battle City tournament, Yami had been watching from the back of the crowd as Jonouchi gleefully defeated Espa Roba at his own psychic game. With a sigh and a grimace he turned and left, seeing that Sugoroku had finally made his public appearance to congratulate Jonouchi on his win. Much like Yugi he was not in the mood to deal with Sugoroku and the odd game that he was playing. As he made his way away from the crowds and from the other duelers, he heard Anzu shriek 'Satou-kun' and than the curses of those close to her.

Just what he needed. His walk now turned into a jog as he tried to lose her in the crowd, than he seen that Jonouchi and Sugoroku were following her. Heading towards the main park in Domino City, which was just across the street from where he had been, he seen a yellow and green circus tent with purple 'doors' sitting amongst a small cluster of trees… with no circus. Pausing for a moment he frowned and glanced around, noting that no one else even seemed to care but with the duelers around they probably shrugged it off. "Yo, Yami!" Jonouchi shouted as he jogged across the street, which had no traffic, and hit the other side walk just as one of the red lights let out and the three were stopped. He glanced over his shoulder and seen Anzu arguing with Jonouchi while Sugoroku was trying to break them up.

"Poor, poor duelist trying to escape someone?" a voice asked as he turned towards the tent and seen a rather unnerving man stepping from the trees. "Would you like to meet my master? He has been waiting for a challenge for a long time." The man that spoke was dressed in a typical clown outfit in alternating squares of black and red with a large white collar, frizzy purple hair, and fluffy pink buttons with a black and red jesters hat that had bells at the ends.

"Yo, Yami!" Jonouchi shouted again as Yami glanced over his shoulder at the approaching group. Maybe the creepy clown would not be a bad choice, if he tried anything a simple 'Mind Crush' could solve everything.

"I will take you up on that." He stated as the clown motioned for him to go to the tent before he did a back flip back into the bushes. Taking in a deep breath, Yami sprinted to the tent as the trio finally got across the street only they watched him disappear through its 'doors.'

He looked around the interior of the tent, seeing wooden bleachers placed in a semi-circle around a small stage that had a sign for 'Magic Show' above it and a box that resembled the magic/trap card 'Mystic Box.' The person sized box with three doors than opened up and the clown stepped half out, beckoning him forward with his painted smile and laugh. "This way, duelist! Let us not keep Master waiting." He stated with a nod, bells jingling as Yami quickly walked towards the stage, the clown ducking back into the box as he entered it.

"Yami-kun, wait!" Anzu shrieked as he was now fully in the box, but the front swung shut behind him and the responding 'clink' of mechanisms told him that it was probably locked, too. At the moment, the pros and cons of the situation were even but he hoped to the gods that he would not regret following the damned clown.

* * *

Meanwhile, Yugi was navigating the crowds of people with little trouble. "Nice to see you out and about, Motou-san." A familiar voice stated as Yugi paused and turned to see a grinning Bakura Ryou standing behind her with a duel disc on his arm and a smug look on his face and his usually untamed hair pulled back in a ponytail. He wore a pair of baggy black pants that had several zippers all over, a black belt with silver studs, and a short sleeves gray shirt that buttoned up the front with the Millennium Ring in plain view.

"Trying to find yourself?" she asked as he laughed, ignoring the crowds around them as he shrugged and motioned towards a quiet place where they could talk, which was on the outskirts of all the commotion. She nodded and both made their way through the crowds to stand in a semi-quiet place at the mouth of a small alleyway. "First the Hawaiian shirt now… the near punk, emo rocker." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the brick building while she had her hands on her hips, looking a bit awkward.

"Figured it was time to drop the sweaters, plus Zuka had a point when it came to image." Bakura admitted as she looked curious. "The Spirit of the Ring." He elaborated as her eyebrows went up. "You didn't know, did you? He did make an appearance during Duelist Kingdom."

"Bakura-san, I was not wholly there during that time." Yugi dryly told him as she brought her right hand up to tap her temple. "I barely remember what happened in the duels against Mai-chan and Mazaki, let alone Pegasus and all that. Yami told me everything, since he was more coherent, but it seems he left a few things out." She continued as he sighed.

"Zuka is to the Ring what Atemu is to the Puzzle." He simply stated as she nodded, accepting that without question because it was true or Bakura had taken a few steps closer to the deep end. "He said that I would not be looking like such a pansy because when he has to take over, he did not want to have his enemy die laughing at his threats."

"That's nice." She replied as something moved in the shadows at the mouth of the alleyway, causing her to watch it from the corner of her eye. "I think it might be best we move on, something is wrong." She muttered and backed away, arms dropping to her sides as Bakura looked confused by her statement. It was than someone literally came up behind her and shoved her towards the alleyway, Bakura looked shocked as she stumbled and tried to keep her balance.

"What the hell?" he snarled, his dark eyes turning gray as his hair looked a bit spikier in its ponytail. A cloaked figure attacked him as he decked the man, while Yugi spun to hit the one that shoved her only to have a second pull her backwards towards the alley. A horse kick to the shin effectively distracted the second cloaked figure, that much she could tell by his cursing, as she turned and blindly grabbed at the shiny object at the top of the hood.

Bakura looked up from his fight at the sound of ripping cloth and watched as Yugi shoved something in her bag and than quickly removed her bag, using it as a weapon to hit the person that shoved her forward, and than threw it at him. "Take that to Mai, she'll know what to do!" she shouted as Bakura caught it just as the guy behind her recovered, only to get an elbow to the the stomach. The guy that she had hit with her bag had finally recovered and used her momentary distraction to knock the wind out of her with a right to the stomach and than an elbow to the back of the neck after she bent forward. Bakura swore as they quickly drug her away and he dodged the attack of two others. Yami was going to kill him for this!

* * *

Around the same time as the brawl, Yami felt a twinge of panic in his mind for a brief moment and than it was gone. He felt a bit confused, letting out the breath he had been holding, he resolved to ask Yugi about it when he felt her stir again. His train of thought was put on hold as the door of the box swung open, showing a dark room that only had a simple desk and with a computer resting on its surface and its screen flickering. "A door is all I need." He muttered and walked around the desk in search of a way out of the room, missing the fact that his profile appeared on the screen and a Dark Magician, dressed in red, appeared as a hologram above the computer and pointed his staff where Yami should have been standing. The intimidation tactic did not work, since the teenage boy was on the other side of the small room and inspecting a flight of stairs that led down.

"You are not worthy of possessing me in your deck, Satou Yami!" the illusion proclaimed as Yami glanced at it with a twitch.

"Over here." He stated waving a hand as nothing happened for a moment.

"How dare you ruin my dramatic entrance!" a voice stated as a teenager emerged from the shadows clad in a red suit, the shoulders looked to be horns, over a black-and-white vertical stripped shirt with a matching bow tie that looked to be starched within an inch of its existence wearing a black-and-white mask that had two horns that curled downwards and obscured most of his face.

"If it wasn't for issues, and avoiding people, I would not be here. What about this challenge your minion spoke of?" Yami asked with a lazy look, arms crossed above the Millennium Puzzle.

"I, the great illusionist Arcana, wish to possess your Dark Magician, since you obviously do not deserve such a powerful being in your deck. Only a master illusionist deserves such a honor!" Arcana declared pompously as Yami palmed his face, muttering something about psychos and card games. "Therefore, I challenge you! The winner will take the losers Dark Magician, how does that sound?" he asked as the other shrugged.

"Sure, works for me. I have no other choice anyways." Yami sarcastically stated as he started his descent down the stairs as the illusion of the Dark Magician in red disappeared and Arcana followed, grumbling about ignorant peasants and that he would trump Yami. "That's very unbecoming of a master, are you sure you are all you say?" he asked with a whisper of a laugh as Arcana's footsteps became more pronounced with his annoyance.

"I am, you fool, and my master has requested I make this a large production." He added with a wave of the hand, causing Yami to pause and stand straight up. This was not right, it was much like his first duel the day before and like a few others duels he had witnessed.

"Master?" Yami questioned as Arcana kept on walking, reaching the door at the bottom while Yami stayed ten steps away.

"Yes, Master is very interested in your downfall… so much that there is a bonus to any that defeat you." He happily told Yami while opening the door to a room that had a tanned floor and lots of light. The tr-color haired boy did not feel comfortable with the set-up, but he knew he could not back out now, so he crossed the remaining distance and stepped into the room.

* * *

In a dimly lit room, Yugi had woken up with a wince and her head tipped back so that she was staring at the ceiling. Her stomach hurt and the back of her neck was echoing the same pain, which told her she needed to work on fighting. "At last we are alone, Motou Yugi." A semi-familiar, female voice stated as Yugi just screwed her eyes shut and let her head stay tilted back over the uncomfortable wood chair.

Yugi knew she should have stayed at Mai's all day.

* * *

**A/N:**

**16 AUG:** Double checked the spelling and what-not.


	19. PAINS OF OBSESSION

**M. PAINS OF OBSESSION**

_Running deep inside my veins  
Poison burning deep inside my veins_

_One look, could kill  
My pain, your thrill..._

_I wanna love you but I better not touch  
I wanna hold you, but my senses tell me to stop  
I wanna kiss you but I want it too much  
I wanna taste you but your lips are venomous poison  
You're poison running through my veins  
You're poison  
I don't wanna break these chains._

_Poison!_

-- _Poison _by Groove Coverage

* * *

Bakura swore in English, hoping that most did not understand a thing he said, as he ran through the crowds of people while following the pointer on the Millennium Ring. He could hear Zuka swearing his own blue streak in his mind, knowing that the Pharaoh would string him up by his toes and a couple other things for letting this happen to Yugi. They had to find her before said teen found out because whatever that was about would not be good for any around the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. He grunted, accidentally running into someone and sending them both to the ground, but it was wasting precious time that they needed to save themselves. "Issues, Bakura-san?" a voice stated as Bakura realized he had run into Ishtar Malik.

"My possible murder if I don't find Yugi." He answered as the blonde frowned.

"Find?" he echoed as both quickly got to their feet, Malik brushing off his jeans while Bakura clutched the straps of the messenger bag he had carried from the scene of the attack with a look of determination and fear on his face.

"A couple occult bastards basically kidnapped her, after a small fight." He explained and held up the bag, which Malik snatched from him and opened up. Inside of the bag was a couple manga, a sketchbook, two normal books, and a dueling disc but it was the golden chain that the Ghouls wore on their hoods or at their throat that made him pale.

"Shit." He muttered and looked around, before noting that the middle spok on the Millenium Ring was still pointing in a direction. "Is that directing you towards her of another Millennium Item?"

"Probably the Puzzle, why?" Bakura asked as Malik slung the bag over his shoulder, thanking the Gods that Yugi's bag was black and worn instead of bright pink, and looked the area for something or someone.

"Do you think you can you track specific Millennium items?" he asked as Bakura shrugged. "Yes or no, Bakura-san, because that may be the only way of finding her before my sister does something terrible."

* * *

With Yugi, she had finally brought her head down so that she was staring a smug Ishtar Isis in the eyes. The older, Egyptian woman wore her typical cream, off the shoulder dress with its black square design around the neckline with the Millennium Tauk around her throat and a two foot long, golden rod with a large ball that had 'wings and the Eye of Ra in the center— the Millennium Rod— in her left hand. "With the exception of your hair, you look so much like her, Yugi." Isis stated as she moved towards the bound teenager, who was glaring openly at her.

"I doubt that, I look like myself and I like being the only one with this face." She remarked as Isis laughed at her comment and moved forward, stopping a scant inch or two from her feet. The woman's right hand came up to cup her cheek, causing Yugi to shiver at the told tone and try to lean away from her touch while glaring. "Are you that desperate?"

"No, you were mine since birth… so I can touch what is mine." Isis stated as Yugi glared openly when isis's hand went from her cheek to resting on her shoulder. She subconsciously felt her mind reaching out to Yami's, hoping to get a message across that things were bad. It was than she felt pain at her temples, like a headache or a migraine was setting in, which caused her to screw her eyes shut and let out a weird sound of pain.

"You crazy bitch!" she hissed out, not understanding why she blamed the woman in front of her.

"I can't have you alerting that cruel man, now can I? He has already poisoned you against me." Isis cooed as her hand moved back up to cup Yugi's chin, tilting the pained teenager's head back, and leaned down with a blissful smile curling her lips. "I will protect you, my darling treasure, you will not have to worry about him or anyone else ever again." She whispered as Yugi snapped her head to the right, it did not matter this psycho kidnapped her but Yugi sure as hell would defy her at every turn.

"Get bent." Yugi snarled out as a final say, even if Isis was still smiling fondly down at her.

* * *

The room that Yami had entered had a circular center that was set down about a foot with odd slits in the sides while a table stood in the center with a covered window or such behind a grinning Arcana. The tri-color haired teen was bored while Arcana rambled on about 'the perfect stage' for their duel and what-not, nothing that interesting Yami in the least. Instead he was focusing on trying to contact Yugi via their mental link, but it was oddly silent, as if she was asleep. He frowned, that burst of panic was not typical with anything she usually panicked about coupled with her lack of response made his stomach fall a bit and his worries surface. Something was wrong, that much he knew.

They had their verbal duel while cutting their deck, sharing sayings but Yami's heart was not fully into it. He held on to his deck as Arcana spread his arms out and continued talking. "You and I are a lot alike." Arcana stated as the table sunk down into the ground, since both held their decks in hand, and Yami glanced down when he started to moved away from Arcana and seen that the floor was moving him back to the edge of the sunken circle, only this time manacles were around his ankles and the same was true for a grinning Arcana. "We both play to win, but as you can see there is an extra fault to losing." He stated as the manacles clicked into place

"This is going too far." Yami muttered under his breath as he tested the manacles

"Now that we are both locked in, you will see your motivation to win." The man purred out as the two spinning blue blades appeared in the slots in the center of the circle sides. "One touch of those blades and your mind will be banished to the Shadow Realms! As you can see there are numbers at several points on the blade's path and that there is a key box at your feet that displays your opponents life points." With that Yami glanced down as the box rose from the ground at his feet and displayed '5000' on the top in digital letters.

"How do I know that there is a really a key in there?" Yami asked with a suspicious look as Arcana twitched at his question and lack of fear. "On that note, you are one crazy little man for going through all that work for a simple card game." He continued with a shiver, which caused Arcana to glare openly at him for daring to interrupt his big reveal. In Yami's opinion the over use of the Shadow Realms was annoying and a bad thing, first there was Pegasus and his tapes as well as that final part of the duel and now there was this group of occultist and the blades! What next? Shaking that line of thought he activated the dueling disc by slipping his deck into place, his opponent doing the same, but a sudden burst of pain made him squeeze his eyes shut and bring a palm to his forehead.

He had first felt Yugi's annoyance and anger at someone, he knew that much no matter how brief the feeling was, before extreme pain followed. The pain was something she felt, something that had been induced in her and it followed to him. The pain was familiar as something from a Millennium item, reminding him of the minor buzz from Pegasus. His hikari was in danger, alone, and he was stuck with the cackling clown-like man. Someone was going to pay for this, that much he knew was true. With all the threats shared, both drew their beginning hand and called their duel to a beginning.

* * *

Isis had sat the golden rod to the side, some place behind Yugi, and returned moments later. The teenager was getting annoyed with the constant touching and cooing, as well as hearing the woman's plans for her and tried to get free, but only resulted in giving herself rope burns around her bare wrists. "First we will remove that hideous ring." Isis stated as Yugi felt the woman's hands trail down her bare arms, raising goose bumps as they moved, and curled her fingers into fists around the rope and to the point where her nails were digging into her palms.

"I like that ring." Yugi hissed out as Isis's fingers managed to pry her fists open, after some work, and Yugi heard all of her rings hitting the ground. It was the first time she had not felt the reassuring weight of her engagement band around her finger and it made her chest feel a bit tight, like she had just lost something important to her. "How about untying my hands so I can claw your eyes out?" she asked in a sweet tone, forced out from between her clenched teeth as Isis laughed, as if it was a joke.

"None of that, darling, no need to resist me." Isis cooed into her ear, causing Yugi to try and head butt the woman, the gasp of pain and lack of hands, not to forget the brief flash of pain at the back of Yugi's head, told her she managed to hit the woman.

"That was me resisting." Yugi snapped, gritting her teeth as Isis yanked on the bun her hair had been in. A moment later she felt the hair-tie being removed as the fingers stayed in her hair and jerking her head back painfully. "Am I pissing you off?" she cheekily asked, despite the pain of having her hair yanked.

"Your attitude will change in a bit, my darling treasure." Isis snarled and let go of her hair, Yugi's head going forward a bit as Isis moved to stand in front of her, only she was now holding something in her hands. Yugi lifted her head a bit as isis quickly shoved the object forward and warm metal was against Yugi's throat as there was a click while Isis backed away.

"I hope you suffer." Yugi snarled before a sudden, intense pain wracked her mind and body, causing her to let out a resounding shriek before everything went black.

* * *

It was after the first round of the duel, which Yami had put down one magic/trap card and one defense monster card and Arcana had put Legion the Fiend Jester (attack 1300/defense 1500) card in attack mode with a smug grin, and that was when the first sign of trouble began. Yami had felt a brief burst of anger and defiance, something that made him smile because that meant Yugi was relatively okay and causing some hell for something, but than it was followed by a resounding mental shriek and a severing of their mental link, leaving him with nothing. He took in a few deep breaths in an attempt to keep his posture and reactions normal, minus the fact that his left hand had froze on top of his deck as he went to draw a card. His eyes shut as he tried to find Yugi's mind, and soul be extension, but found nothing.

The scream meant that it was not by her choice. Someone had crossed the line and was attempting to steal _his _Hikari from him, forcibly at that and in a way that was down right wrong. Ignoring Arcana's words Yami drew the card and slowly opened his eyes, letting the Shadow Realms leak into him and his surroundings. This was a challenge to him and his power, to his protection over his Hikari, and he would not lose. Arcana would suffer, since he was standing between him and searching out his Hikari and the enemy.

"Well?" Arcana sneered out, getting rather impatient with waiting. He did not note that Yami's red eyes were colder or that the shadows in the room seemed to shift of their own accord.

"If you are involved in this plot, you will wish you were dead." Yami hissed out as Arcana shivered at his tone. His opponent had been silent and polite to this point and this total personality switch was unnerving. "I play Card Destruction." He added inserting the card into the side of the duel disc with a odd grin. "Now we both discard our hands, correct?" he asked as both discarded their present hands and drew another, causing Arcana to grit his teeth and look angry while Yami kept his grin.

"You will regret that, your Dark Magician will be mine and your mind will be broken by the Shadow Realm!" Arcana declared as the shadows shifted, having been invoked but they were not happy about that, but they were ignored by the pseudo-magician.

"Now, before I end my turn, I activate my face down magic card— Brain Control." He stated calmly as the card on the field slipped up to show a brain with hands and Arcana paled, because there had to be a reason for this. A high level summon, at best to sacrifice 800 life points without putting his other face-down card into attack mode. Yami's life points dropped to 4200 as the black moved a little bit from its starting point. "I pay the life points and take control of your Fiend Jester." He continued as the hands shot out of the card and grabbed the Fiend Jester and jerked it over to Yami's side. "Now I tribute both to summon the card _you_will never have, in attack mode." With that the Dark Magician appeared on the field above his card looking regal and rather pleased. "Attack him directly!" Yami bellow and threw his hand out as the Dark Magician seemed to nod to him and darted forward, releasing a magical attack that reduced Arcana's life points to 2500 and caused the man to stare at Yami in shock, which rapidly turned to anger as the blade got closer to him.

"You will pay for that, I am the one running this show after all." Arcana growled out as he drew a card, attempting to keep his cool in the face of the other's odd façade. He than played that card face down and motioned for Yami to go, which the teen drew a card and tucked it into his hand and pulled another card from his hand.

"I play Pot of Greed." Yami stated and drew two cards, which he tucked into his hand before pulling another card and placing it in the slot that Pot of Greed had been in. "Next, I activate Graceful Charity." With that he drew three cards and than discarded a card from both sides of his hand. It was at the moment after discarding the two cards that he looked a bit pensive, as if unsure of his next move and was frowning. So he put down two magic/trap cards, causing Arcana to frown himself because he had no idea what his opponent was up to. "Now, I summon Beta the Magnet Warrior in attack mode." He declared and put the card down, watching as the card appeared on the field with the yellow robot creature with magnets for hands and a large one going through its head.

"You just activated my face-down ritual card!" Arcana jovially stated as Yami twitched and his eyes narrowed.

* * *

Bakura and Malik arrived at a slightly run down building outside of the Battle City parameters, the Millennium Ring having guided them there and both were hoping to any deity above that it did not take them to Yami. Upon entering the building they did not take in any features, they were focused on where the Ring was leading them. As they climbed a set of stairs and went down a corridor they heard a door open, which prompted them to duck into a little, shadowed alcove. The place they were in had to be an abandoned mansion or something, since no normal house had such a space, but they were not going to debate that. Malik slapped a hand over Bakura's mouth, since the white haired teen was about to ask a question, and a smug Isis passed by them looking like she was on cloud nine.

The blonde teen bit his lip because that was a disturbing look. They heard her sharp footsteps fade as she descended the same wooden stairs the had stealthy walked up, they had been luck and found no squeaky boards, and both relaxed a bit. Bakura pulled his hand away and glared at him. "Explain." The white haired teen hissed out as they emerged from the alcove.

"Psychotic sister." The blond stated as if it answered everything and moved towards the room she had emerged from. Bakura followed, mostly because he had no choice, and both stood outside the door trying to steel their nerves for what they would see. "Ready?" Malik asked as Bakura took the initiative and pushed the door open and they both seen Yugi sitting in a chair with her hands tied, but she was hunched over with her hand covering her face like a curtain but they could see that her shoulders were shaking.

"Shit." Bakura whispered as Malik moved in and started to untie her wrists as if this was common, but he had no heart to ask because he had never seen her in such a state. Averting his eyes he moved into the room and immediately spotted several shiny objects, which Zuka was cooing over— the golden rod on the only table in the room and the rings on the floor. He crouched down and picked up the only gold ring and immediately recognized it as the one that Yugi always wore, the one that matched the one Yami wore, and he pocketed it for after they got Yugi out of the room. He stood back up and turned around as Yugi was on her feet, only she had both of her hands up to her throat.

"Motou-san!" he shouted, thinking she was trying to strangle herself, but froze as Malik grabbed him with a frown. They heard her make a strangled sound of pain or annoyance and than heard something break as the girl suddenly flung something gold against the wall and fell to her knees rubbing her throat.

"We have to get her out of here." Malik stated in an urgent tone as he ignored the Millennium Tauk, which Yugi had flung against the wall in her fit to remove it, and moved to the table where the rod was sitting. He noted that Bakura had moved around him and was now crouching down by a trembling Yugi, who was rubbing her throat, and his destruction allowed the blond teen tucked the rod into his belt, between the denim and leather, and than moved to crouch by Yugi's other side. "Shall we make our grand escape?"

* * *

Yami's eyes narrowed as the activated Dark Renewal Ritual took his summoned Beta the Magnet Warrior and the face-down card Arcana had as tributes to summon the Dark Magician the man had in the graveyard. So that was how the duel was now, purple Dark Magician on Yami's side facing a red Dark Magician on Arcana's. "Dark Magician versus Dark Magician, a glorious showdown that will show you that I am a Master of Magicians!" Arcana stated as Yami just stayed silent. "I will play two cards face down." He added and put the two magic/trap cards into the slots on the duel disc, now the field mirrored Yami's, and waved to show the end of his turn.

Odd. That was the only word Yami could come up with as he drew a card and than placed two more magic/trap cards into the slots and than laid a monster face-down in defense and ended his turn. Arcana followed his lead, only he put a card down in attack mode and the Dark Elf appeared on the field as his back-up. "You truly have no other strategy but to mimic mine?" Yami dryly asked as he felt the shadows take on a life of their own, felt them leech into the two Dark Magicians and that was a clear warning to him that the duel could not be controlled by him or Arcana at the moment. His control had slipped with Yugi's absence, but Yami decided that it was for the best since Arcana had said he wanted a duel of Magicians.

"I will make the first move, this time." Arcana declared as he brought a hand up and that was when both Dark Magicians decided to move against one another. The masked man's jaw dropped when the staves clashed, the Dark Elf making a retreat backwards to stand by Arcana while the two higher level spellcasters clashed. "What?" he asked in a high pitched voice as the Dark Magician's drew back, but the purple Dark Magician recovered quicker and brought his staff down in a slicing motion and the red Dark Magician barely blocked the attack, but the rest of the attack went past him and took out the Dark Elf, reducing Arcana's life points to 2000. "My elf!" he shrieked, obviously uncomfortable with the fact that the attack came dangerously close to him.

"Is this not what you wanted?" Yami asked tilting his head to the side as the red Dark Magician snarled and rushed at the purple Dark Magician, staff raised in the air but his opponent brought his staff up and blocked his attack. The purple Magician than brought a foot up and kicked his red counterpart in the chest, sending him sprawling back as his staff with skittering to the left.

"I activate Mystic Guillotine!" Arcana bellowed in anger as the wooden guillotine appeared with the purple Magician strapped to it and the red Magician looked pissed, as least Yami believed he was because of the glare that he threw over his shoulder at Arcana. As the blade fell and Arcana cackled in triumphant, several top hats magically appeared with one covering the purple Magician.

"You have no faith in those that duel for you?" Yami asked with a frown as the blade sliced the hat in half and the guillotine and hat was gone, but the other three remained. "They are, after all, well versed spellcasters… it would be an insult to dare and interrupt them." He continued to say with a slight bow to the red Magician and the Mystic Hats, a show of his respect to them and their trade, and received a bewildered look from the red Magician and a glare from Arcana.

"Why would I have faith in them? They have no spirit or life, they are only mindless holograms." Arcana sneered as Yami frowned, this would not bode well for the man. He had basically just insulted two duel monsters that were fully coherent. The red Magician, having enough of their interruptions, snatched his staff back up and destroyed the hat on the far right, only to destroy Yami's face down card while Arcana sneered at the red Magician's impatience and disobedience.

"Because, you can only push a person, or creature, so far before they decide to cut their losses." Yami remarked as Arcana ignored his veiled warning.

"I activate Thousand Knives!" he declared as the red Magician looked a bit more annoyed and began to throw knives at the right hat, only to have every magic and trap card dispelled from the field as the purple Magician appeared on the field standing rather regally in front of Yami, a neutral look on his face but his blue eyes betrayed his anger at Arcana's words and actions. "Dark Magician, attack him!" the masked man bellowed again and threw his hand out as the red Magician glanced over his shoulder with a scowl and a look that clearly asked, 'What did you just say?'

"Why would you do that? It would accomplish nothing." Yami stated with a frown, trying to figure out the point of having two duel monsters with the same attack points take one another out. The red Magician stood straight and thrust the bottom of his staff into the ground and openly defied Arcana, obviously finding his demand to be foolish while the purple Magician frowned and mirrored his opponent.

"Why would I order that moronic creature to attack? Because, I want to beat you and gain everything I can from the Master!" he shouted as both Magician's glared at him while Yami folded his hand and waited. "I want my Katherine back, she promised that she would give her to me with no strings attached…"

"I could care less what you were promised by this pain-in-the-ass Master your type have been rambling on about." Yami snapped out as the shadows grew a bit stronger, causing the purple Magician to turn to Yami with a concerned look. "You are standing between me and finding my Hikari and if you are involved into whatever plot is going on you will regret it." The threat behind those words made Arcana shiver, but he still did not take Yami seriously. The teen drew a card and than placed it in a slot, watching as it appeared face down on the field next to the other to magic/trap cards.

After drawing a card Arcana snorted. "Since my Dark Magician has not attacked, I will activate Beckon of Darkness to take your Dark Magician." He proudly stated as a red hand appeared above them, from ominous swirling black clouds as Yami glared at his opponent.

* * *

Escaping the abandoned place had gotten a bit harder. Malik carefully maneuvered the exhausted Yugi so that she was leaning on Bakura, despite his deep blush and uneasy look, and moved to stand in front of him as Isis stood with ten of her Ghouls. "Malik, Malik, Malik." She stated, attempting to sound disappointed but he blond teen just did not care. "Where did I go wrong with raising you after Father died?"

"Don't know, but I'm glad you did." He told her while baring his teeth in annoyance, instinctively pulling the golden rod from his belt and holding it up in a defensive position. It was than his eyes briefly went blank, than his entire demeanour shifted and his lavender eyes darkened to a blackish purple while his eyes seemed sharper and his hair spikier.

"You can't defeat us alone, little brother." She stated proudly as he relaxed a bit, laughing.

"Don't be too sure of that, bitch." He stated in a tone that was slightly darker as his annoyed look faded to a simple smile as he brought the rod up so that the ball with rings was in front of his forehead. "I dispel the threads of your puppet master." He stated as several shook themselves and looked around in confusion, than they left as only three remained.

"We still out number you." She stated but it was mere moments after she had said that when five teens in regular attire snuck up behind the three behind her and took them out without any issue. Isis spun and seen what had happened and beat a hasty a retreat by running away.

"What the hell did your sister do now?" one asked as the blond sighed and motioned to Yugi.

"Illegal, we get it. Denial, okay." Another stated, clearlyinterrperting things differently and he proceeded to drag the others away from the situation and explaining the complex meanings behind that simple motion.

"Friends?" Bakura asked as the blond tucked the rod back into his belt and carefully slipped an arm around Yugi's waist while Bakura had a grip around her shoulders.

"The Rare Hunters, the boy's own little group to counter that psycho." The blond replied as Bakura twitched.

"Who the hell are you and where is Malik?" he demanded as they moved forward.

"Who I am is of no importance now, but he is most concerned with getting this young woman to a safe place. Where would this place be?" he asked as Bakura decided to play along, it would do his health no good if he let Yugi get kidnapped twice in one day.

* * *

As the red hand descended from the black clouds above them, Yami touched one of his magic cards on the duel disc. "I counter with Magic Refpanel, which negates your spell card's effect on me and turns it back to you." He stated as the card was flipped up and glowed, causing the hand to make a detour and grab Arcana's Dark Magician and disappear into the clouds. Arcana grit his teeth as Yami grinned. "Did not expect that, did you oh Master Magician?"

"I activate Monster Reborn and bring back my Dark Magician." Arcana declared coldly as the red Dark Magician reappeared, looking pleased with his return. He than drew a card and let his cold disposition drop into a rather scary cackle that made Yami twitch. "Now I activate Nightmare Chains." He stated as the one magic card flipped up and chains shot out of it, forcibly binding the now struggling purple Magician to a metal cross and moving him to the side lines and now the red Magician looked angry again, since his opponent was removed from the field. The purple Magician looked a bit resigned, but it did not stop him from glaring at Arcana and casting worried glances back at Yami since his duelist was now left wide open.

"Thank you for your efforts so far, Dark Magician, but it seems I cannot do anything for you at the moment." Yami stated with a sigh as the purple Magician nodded to him, knowing this was true.

"Why do you talk to him as it he will actually listen?" Arcana sneered as he brought his hand up. "Dark Magician, attack him directly!" he cackled as the red Magician scowled and brought his staff up, taking in a deep breath during the process, and threw a simple magic attack at Yami, who grit his teeth against the attack and stayed on his feet, and dropped his life points to 1700. "They are just pawns in our games, we are the masters and they are the servants, they have absolutely no life but to serve us in these duels. They deserve no respect." The man snarled as the entire room seemed to be silent. Yami swore, after he regained his breath, that he could hear a pin drop in the room while he stared at the cold expression that settled across the red Magician's face.

"What?" Yami asked in a slightly high pitched, 'did I hear you right' voice.

"They are servants and, by extension, expendable. In a game like this you have to destroy anything, even the monsters, in order to win and that is what I am preparing to do." He proudly stated as Yami glanced at the twitching purple Magician, his fingers twitching ever so often, and than turned to look at the red Magician and seen he was gripping his staff so hard his knuckles were white and his eyes were wide in shock.

"Than, whatever happens to you happens. I tried to tell you." Yami stated as he shook his head in disgust while Arcana chose to put a card down in defense mode with one magic card to end his turn. The tri-color haired teen than drew a card and surveyed his hand for a moment before putting one card down in defense mode

"Let's end this, the grand finale is soon!" Arcana dramatically stated as he drew a card and added it to his hand and than switched his face down card to face up. "Doll of Demise, attack his face down card." He declared as the demented looking doll appeared above its card and charged at Yami's face-down card with a high pitched giggle. As the blades that made up its hand hit the card, the doll went flying backwards and the serene Mystic Elf appeared with her hands clasped in front of her. Arcana's lack of paranoia cost him 400 life points and dropped him down to 1600. "Just a minor glitch." He flippantly stated and motioned to the red Magician. "Destroy that weak elf." He stated as the red Magician flicked his staff and the Mystic Elf was gone.

"Glitch?" Yami echoed as the masked man touched one of his magic/trap cards on the duel disk and it flipped up to show a grotesque scene of a spirit rising from a hunched over body.

"I tribute my Doll of Demise to activate Ectoplasmer." Arcana stated happily as the doll faded and was turned into a white blob that flew straight at Yami, hitting him head on as the purple Magician started to struggle against the chains this time. Yami held a hand up to him as he calmed a bit, but the teen was hunched over a bit and his life points had been reduced to 900. "You just have to love Ectoplasmer, takes a tribute and inflicts direct damage of half the tributed monsters attack points."

"Just amazing." Yami dryly muttered with a shiver, it was cards and effects like that did not sit well with him. "You are so far gone that you would resort to something like that." He added with a shiver, squeezing his eyes shut to banish the image of the spirit being forcibly removed and used to attack. Strategies with armies, sacrificing a division to give an opening for the rest was one thing but to do so with such an attitude? Yami opened his eyes and quickly composed himself as he drew a card and sighed, he placed that card face down on the field with a heavy heart.

"Dark Magician, attack his face down card!" Arcana stated after he drew a card and added it to his hand as yami's only defense was destroyed with a flick of the red Magician's staff, but now the Magician was looking edgy. Yami had thought that the man would not use Ectoplasmer again, since he still had his high level card, but when there was no indication of his turn ending… "Now I tribute my Dark Magician to finish you off!" he laughed as the red Magician stood stock still while Yami let his jaw drop.

The shadows stopped their movement as the red Magician turned to face Arcana with a look of betrayal, but the other was not paying attention. He was internally gloating about beating the other Dark Magician owner and had a large grin on his face. It was than the red Magician's spirit was ripped from his body with a silent scream etched on his face and the red tinted spirit was hurling at Yami, only to have a purple tinted energy block the attack and both tinted power cancelled one another out. "What in the world?" Yami whispered as he carefully rubbed the spots from his eyes and noted that the field was cleared of monsters— the Red Magician's spirit had been blocked by the purple Magician's spirit!

"Not possible!" Arcana all but shrieked as Yami titled his head to the side and muttered something while bowing his head.

"Anything is possible, considering." Yami answered as the masked man grit his teeth, his turn having ended with his use of Ectoplasmer. "I will finish you off in a most ironic way." He continued to say, after drawing his card, with a grin. "I activate Monster Reborn." He stated as his first magic/trap card flipped up. "From the destruction of my first hand in the opening of this match, I summon Dark Magician Girl from the card graveyard in attack mode." He continued as the girl appeared on the field, bouncing up and down happily as Arcana paled. "The young apprentice of the Dark Magician, who gains 300 attack points for every Dark Magician in the card graveyard, who will avenge the Magician you wronged with your actions." He finished as the Dark Magician Girl suddenly looked serious as she darted forward and dealt the final blow to a screaming Arcana.

His life points hit zero as the Dark Magician Girl and cards faded from view, but the blades stopped spinning due to the shadows while Arcana fumbled for the key he had hidden. "I refuse to give up anything!" the man shouted hysterically as the shadows bound him from head to toe while Yami freed himself from the shackles by using the key that was in the once locked box at his feet.

"You have no choice." Yami informed him with a grin and slowly stalked towards the trembling masked man.

* * *

They had reached the Game Shop within five minutes, luckily encountering no one any knew or any major crowds since the shop was closed with Sugoroku running around. After they had gotten her into the shop and up to the living area, Yugi had pulled away and stumbled down the corridor to take a hot shower. Her mind was still numb from the pain of encountering the insane spirit and being kidnapped. She had emerged from the bathroom clad in a towel and made a beeline for her room, stumbling a bit more as everything finally settled into her mind and she collapsed on her bed.

It was ten minutes after she passed out that Yami had entered the game shop, looking rather serious, causing both Bakura and Malik to freeze in mid-conversation at the check-out counter, where Malik had placed Yugi's messenger bag, and turn to stare at him. In Bakura's mine, Zuka was all but waving neon colored flags about sticking around in the Game Shop. _Chibi-Hikari, get out… now. _Zuka told his Hikari as Malik carefully moved around the glaring Millennium Puzzle spirit and slipped out the door, obviously understanding the danger they were in. Bakura, having been abandoned to his fate, decided to tell Yami what he could and than make his break.

"Motou-san is rather shaken up, Satou-san, we left her upstairs and were only waiting for you to return." Bakura stated as he held both hands up, showing that they came in peace.

"Shaken?" Yami echoed as the temperature in the room dropped a bit and Bakura shivered, ignoring Zuka's shouting about self-preservation as a survival instinct, because he knew that he was a step away from dying.

"We found her tied up in a room, in an abandoned building, being held by Malik's psycho older sister, and here is the ring that I figured was important." He stated in one breath, pulling the gold engagement ring from his pocket and sitting it on the counter before running out of the Game Shop before what he said settled into Yami's mind. He made his way up the stairs, pausing long enough to grab the ring Bakura sat on the counter, and than made his way up to the living area. After quickly kicking off his shoes he rushed back to Yugi's room, his chest feeling a bit tight from anxiety. He silently entered the room and seen that she was laying on her bed, clad in a towel, seeming to be asleep.

Yami removed his duel disk, letting it dropped to the carpeted floor, as he stopped by the edge of the bed, taking a moment to reach over to the dresser at the end of her bed to sit the ring down on its surface so it would not be lost. Taking in a deep breath he slipped the Millennium Puzzle from around his neck and reached over her prone form and sat it down before sitting on the edge of the bed. "My hikari?" he whispered bringing a hand up to touch her face, but her eyes flew open and she was sitting up and scooting a bit back from him in her surprise.

"Yami." She whispered, more to herself than him, as her body relaxed a bit.

"What happened?" he asked bringing a hand up to touch her cheek, but his fingers fell short as his eyes slipped a bit lower and noted the red marks around her throat. She looked away as he let his fingers drop to touch the red marks at the hollow of her throat, causing him to frown as she brought a shaky hand up and pressed it against his chest. "Yugi." He whispered as he head snapped around to stare at him, he had never used her real name before so he was worried about her.

"I was talking with Bakura-san when that cult, I think one of the Monitors called them Ghouls, came out of no where and pushed me towards the alleyway." She stated biting her lip as he carefully let his hand slid down to her shoulder and tugged her forward into a hug, his other arm going around her waist as she rested her chin on his shoulder. "If your hand slips farther…"

"What happened next?" he pressed, bypassing her attempt to lighten the mood. "Our connection is gone, I felt pain from your side before that." He stated as she shivered and brought her own arms around his shoulders.

"I woke up with my hands tied at my back and the woman was babbling on about me being the perfect vessel or body for someone… something named Nepha." She continued to tell him, her arms tightening around his shoulders as he seemed to instinctively growl. "She removed my rings, saying something about you would not ruin her again and that…" she trailed off as her body started to shake and her emotions were coming undone.

Yami stopped his growling and started to hum a soothing melody, but Yugi was not calming down. He could feel that she was crying now, the tears warm against his shoulder, and that caused him to bring the hand that was at her waist up to stroke her wet hair. "She will pay for this, my Hikari." He whispered to her as she did not loosen her grip, her tears did not stop, and her body betrayed her grief.

"I met this Nepha, she is not a nice person." Yugi whispered brokenly as she shifted so that her entire body was sitting comfortably in his lap. "She said many terrible things about you, things that I did not believe to be true." She admitted as he tilted his head to the side and pressed his lips to her cheek. "Despite everything and such, Yami, I do love you." She whispered as his eyes widened, but he did not draw back from her. "Please…" she trailed off and was asleep against his shoulder, her day having caught up with her as he just held her.

The link could be re-established, the ring replaced, but her admittance of love was something he did not want to lose. He could tell that her trust was cracked, but not totally broken, and that she would be relying on him to help her through the day after this, for him to be there to reassure that she was not alone and he would.

* * *

**A/N:**I was hoping for a bit more response, but hey that's life. At least no one has any issues with the rewrite to this point. I was thinking back to a review I got on mediaminer about Yugi being a Mary-sue/self-insert... never laughed so hard in my life! Any self-insert I do has nothing to do with romance and I usually end up dying in the first chapter and being the crazy spirit/ghost that is causing trouble.

Yes, I have a few issues. Hope things aren't that bad so far. If there are any spelling issues, my spell/grammar check in Microsoft Word has gone funky, meaning I need to fix the damned thing now, so I apologize and will go back the last two or three chapters to make sure there are no glaring mistakes like in this. When I get that fixed, I'll check the grammar.


	20. INTERLUDE: Whole versus Broken

Well, after the next part I am going to take two weeks to figure out the Battle City finals but first... there is a poll up concerning how to approach the last section of WMHH: TC. I would like at least 10 votes, either that way or in a review, about how people would like to see this go since I not have three possible ways to continue. Thanks.

* * *

**INTERLUDE: Whole versus Broken**

_Living life like an ocean  
Now the current's slowly pulling me down  
It's getting harder to breathe  
It won't be too long and I'll be going under_  
_Can you save me from this._

_('Cause) It's not my time,_  
_I'm not going_  
_There's a fear in me_  
_It's not showing_  
_This could be the end of me_  
_And everything I know_  
_Oh, I won't go_

- _It's Not My Time_ by 3 Doors Down

* * *

As soon as that clasp had clicked, Yugi felt pain from something that was not physical. She had fallen unconscious, or so she thought because she found herself standing in an odd place, not the Shadow Realms but not the corridor with the two rooms that she remembered seeing when it came to meeting Yami outside of the real world. One half was whole, the half she stood out that resembled her room, but the other half was broken. She seen that it had, at one point, resembled a royal chamber or even a fancy bedroom, but now everything was torn or slashed and the stone walls broken and ready to collapse.

This was not right and the teenager knew it. They were not separated by doors, immediately causing her to assume that this was not a friendly spirit or even remotely neutral. "This one is younger! She did well!" a raspy, slightly insane voice cackled as Yugi whipped her head around to stare at the red haired woman that stood in the shadows with a demented smile on her tanned face. The teenager froze when she took in the woman's looks.

She stood a couple inches taller than Yugi and wore a white dress that had blood down the front, her red hair was in total disarray and looked matted from her waist to her shoulders and her eyes were dark and wild. She could have been a slightly older version of Yugi, had Yami not changed her hair upon the Puzzle's completion, and that scared Yugi a bit. "Who the hell are you?" Yugi asked, not moving away from the barriers that barely separated the rooms.

"I am Meskhenet Nepha, the wife to Pharaoh Atemu." The woman cooed out happily, and proudly, as Yugi tried to keep her features in a neutral expression. She had no illusions that Atemu had not been married; she actually expected it because he was a royal and needed to secure his legacy… the royal line. The fact that this woman would have resembled her just made her a bit uneasy, made her heart ache with the thought that she was a replacement for his wife.

"That's nice, so what's going on?" the Japanese teenager pressed as Nepha stalked closer to her.

"I want a body, I will do anything to get said body." She stated leaning towards the teen, causing said teen to take a few steps back in an attempt to keep a safe distance away from the psycho. "I told that wanna-be Priestess, that reborn fool, that when I found a body I would not go back to him. She took a liking to you, only after I told her everything through a woman that I had attempted to gain control of. Her power was good, gave me a chance to recover." Nepha ranted happily as Yugi took in a few deep breaths.

This was not good. Not good at all. She was stuck in limbo, or hell or where ever this bloody place was, with a maniac. "You did not mention anything of Atemu, who is awake and active." Yugi stated as the woman's face twisted into an ugly scowl and she drew back and screamed, than proceeded to destroy more of her room, while Yugi decided to sit on the bed on her half, far from the raging psycho.

"That bastard deserves the pain of death for doing this to me!" Nepha shrieked as she tore at the tattered fabric in the chamber, her anger causing more stones hit the floor and revealed calm darkness behind the walls. "He took me as his wife, he brought trouble unto me, and I am glad his children suffered! I did not want to bare children for that disgusting kingdom!" Yugi gripped the sheets of her bed upon hearing this rant.

She did not say 'forced' into being his wife, which meant she had accepted it without fighting. He had not forced Yugi to be his fiancée, but she had accepted it because he made her feel special… different. Troubles were troubles, everyone had them and to the teenager the broken spirit sounded rather self-centered, but the children… "You are disgusting!" Yugi declared as she got to her feet, causing Nepha to pause in her destruction and glare openly at the teen from over her shoulder.

"You cannot judge me, you are too far below me." Nepha stated in a superior tone and turned back to Yugi, stalking forward and crossing the barrier while the teenager glared at her in defiance. "Atemu cannot love anything, he is incapable. He is a self-centered, cruel bastard." She sneered out as Yugi felt something in her snap.

How dare this woman, who claimed to be Yami's past wife, insult him so. The teenager may not know him, or his past, that well but she sure as hell was not going to stand and let the spirit in front of her insult her fiance. She got to see Nepha's eyes widen, briefly, before they both hit the ground. The red haired woman let out a shriek of anger and pain as Yugi clawed at her eyes and tried to keep herself on top of Nepha, who was trying to roll them. "I don't care what he was like in the past." Yugi hissed out as Nepha finally managed to roll so that she was on top, bringing her hands up to strangle Yugi who had laced her one fingers with Nepha's and was struggling to keep the hands away from her throat. "If he is like that now and to me, I'll make him regret being reawakened." She added and managed to buck her lower half up and caused Nepha to be off balance, letting her roll the older woman off of her and shakily got to her feet. Nepha did the same, but the spirit looked a bit more shaken than Yugi was.

"Why do you stay with him?" Nepha snarled as Yugi smirked.

"He makes me feel and he was there when I needed someone that was not a family member or friend." Yugi stated with a huff and drew herself up to her full height, looking pleased with her decision. "He is funny, understanding… a bit touchy-feely, but I think I am starting to understand why he is." She added as Nepha was trembling, mostly from anger.

"He is mine." The spirit snarled, doing a complete change from her hate against the ex-Pharaoh.

"He is no ones but his own." Yugi argued as Nepha let out a war cry and tackled Yugi, going for the throat again, succeeding this time since Yugi was taken off guard. The red head was pleased with this as Yugi gasped for breath, but the teenager brought her hands up to Nepha's face and was ready to try and take out one of the older woman's eyes when things shifted.

Nepha's hands slackened in surprise, Yugi took in a breath while she could as she felt that her body was waking up. The teen wrapped her hands around Nepha's wrists and shoved the confused woman off of her and quickly full took control of her body and mind, feeling relieved once she felt the cool metal beneath her fingers and the pain receding. Connection severed, but the damage was done.


	21. INSIDE LOOKING OUT

**N. INSIDE LOOKING OUT**

_Inside my head's a box of stars I never dared to open  
Inside the wounded hide their scars, inside this lonesome sparrow's fall  
Inside the songs of our defeat, they sing of treaties broken  
Inside this army's in retreat, we hide beneath the thunder's call_

_Inside the failures of the light, the night is wrapped around me  
Inside my eyes deny their sight, you'd never find me in this place  
Inside we're hidden from the moonlight, we shift between the shadows  
Inside the compass of the night, inside the memory of your face_

_Outside the walls are shaking  
Inside the dogs are waking  
Outside the hurricane won't wait  
Inside they're howling down the gate_

- _Inside_ by Sting

* * *

Sleeping in a towel was not the best idea, so when Yugi woke up the next morning she felt a bit exposed and the towel was missing. She lifted her head a bit and found that she had managed to snag a sheet during the night and it was curled around her, but she was also sleeping on top of Yami with her back to the door and he looked rather pleased with himself even asleep. She sat up, carefully sliding to his side as the arm that had been around her waist flopped back so that his hand hung off the edge of the bed. She careful turned and swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stretched a bit, wincing as her shoulders protested as did her arms, than she realized her other predicament and quickly pulled the rest of the sheet free and wrapped it around her upper body with a blush. "Is there any way to persuade you to sleep in just a sheet more often?" Yami asked as she glanced over her shoulder and seen he was wide awake and grinning, his other arm under his head. Yugi rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the fact that her blush was now darker, and picked up the second pillow on her bed and hit him in the face with it.

"I'll ignore that question." She stated getting to her feet as he batted the pillow away and watched her gather up some clothes from her dresser, also grabbing the golden engagement ring that he had put on the dresser, and stalked out of the room for the bathroom. He stayed in his sprawled out position on the bed and stared at the ceiling, letting his eyes fall shut again. He knew that she was putting a façade up, trying to pretend that yesterday did not happen, and the only reason why she was doing that was because she did not want to think herself weak. His eyes flew open and and sat up in the bed, remembering the card he wanted to give her and a few other important things.

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and than leaned down and picked up his dueling disc, removing his deck and sitting the disc to his left on the bed. He flipped through his deck until he was staring down at the red Dark Magician and the issue of the card's shaved edges, but with a small application of his Shadow Magic the card was back in pristine shape. This card would do better in her deck, he figured, considering the fact he already had a Dark Magician in his deck. A moment later he hissed and dropped the card, as if it burned him, and two familiar Magician's appeared in the room just as Yugi returned from getting dressed. "This is new." She stated in an amused tone as they all stared at her as she dropped the sheet by the door to her room. "Four for breakfast?" she asked as the purple Dark Magician nodded and she left the room.

"What the hell?" Yami asked as both Magician's glanced at one another and shrugged.

Yugi had taken things in stride because she knew odd things happened in concerns to the Millennium Items, so the appearance of two duel monsters did not warrant any real reaction. She settled on making a simple western breakfast of french toast with tea as the three entered the kitchen, the two Magicians without their clunky hats and two staffs, and took seats at the table. "Why did you sudden appear?" Yami asked as the purple Magician accepted a cup of tea that Yugi sat down in front of him and his red counterpart, who nodded to her as well. She turned to the counter and picked up the two remaining mugs and sat one down across from Yami, where she would be sitting, and the other in front of Yami, who smiled at her.

"Excuse me, would you happen to have some honey?" the red Magician asked as she frowned and glanced at the cupboards.

"Possibly, hold on a second." Yugi replied and started her search as the purple Magician rolled his eyes.

"My name is Mahaad, across from me is Maram, and we are here because something is going on here and we wish to prevent a repetition of a dark event in history." Mahaad stated as Yugi growled in annoyance and sat the sugar bowl with a spoon handle sticking out of it in the center of the table, turning back to her search. As Yami reached for it, but Mahaad had quickly taken control first and received a glare for his win. "An event that could have been prevented if we had been on our guard against all fronts."

"An event that you may never remember, due to the your honored Mother's decision." Maram cued in as Yugi triumphantly found the honey, putting it on the table with the maple syrup, and than she returned to the stove top to complete the cooking of the last three slices of french toast in peace while listening to the conversation.

"How would you know of this?" Yami asked with narrowed eyes as Maram opened the small jar of honey and looked around for a spoon, only to have Yugi move to a near by drawer and retrieve one with him.

"Thank you." He stated with a nod and turned back to them while she picked up the spatula and flipped one of the three pieces of bread she put on to cook. "I was one of the five magicians, magic casters, she requested to aide in the ritual."

"How did you become cards?" Yugi asked as she flipped the bread again, drawing some attention to herself. "I doubt that you died of old age and passed into the Shadow Realms." She added in a dry tone as Yami swiped the sugar bowl and dared Mahaad to take it back.

"With the war, we chose to become what you see now in the world. It was our way of watching the items as time passed, since some issues have not been resolved." Mahaad answered as the two tri-color haired teens waited for further elaboration, which was put off by the purple Magician sipping his tea. "The Shadow Realms would have let us pass on if certain things did not come to be, but those things did and here we are. By a vote, we decided that Yugi-sama will require a full-time guard since she will not possess a Millennium item and she is untrained."

"Untrained?" Yugi asked as she carefully removed the fried bread from the pan and added it to the small pile of six on the plate she had begun before they entered.

"Why will she not have a Millennium item?" Yami asked as he got up and was around the table, grabbing four plates from a cupboard while Yugi had the forks and the plate of french toast, which she turned and put in the middle of the table with the small pile of forks, while Yami distributed the plates.

"Yugi-sama can possess the Millennium Puzzle, through her connection to you, but other than that she will have a violent reaction to any of the others." Maram answered as he snatched a fork and stole two pieces of french toast easily and with a grin while Mahaad followed and the two teens watched both of them carefully. "She is different from the rest of you, she will have to go back through formal training."

"What?" Yugi croaked out as both magician's decided to enjoy the breakfast provided.

An hour had passed with discussion of what was going on and what exactly the two Magician's could tell them, both Magician's sat at the table while Yugi cleaned up and Yami got dressed for the day and grabbed the Millennium Puzzle. As Yami had left the Game Shop as Mahaad faded back into the Shadow Realm, but Maram had said he would shadow Yugi through her day and she had shrugged and told him that was okay so long as he knew when to not be around and if he was invisible. Yugi had left ten minutes after Yami with her laptop in its case, having received a phone call from Jonouchi asking if she could visit Shizuka and keep her company for the day since he had to go gain some locator cards.

* * *

Fifteen-year-old Kawai Shizuka was a rather pretty teenager with auburn-red hair, from her mother's side of the family, that fell over her shoulders and a clear, peach like complexion that stood out against the white pillows she sat against in her white hospital bed. She was trying to block out the sterile smell of the hospital room and the symphony of beeps, coughs, and muted voices around her. It was hard not to feel bored when all you could do was listen to the sounds around you, which was the situation she was in. She had just recently undergone eye surgery, after a few months of establishing that the trouble was truly in her eyes, and was now sitting in her bed, in one of the hospital gowns, with bandages around her eyes leaving her recovery days in darkness. The monotony of the only day her brother and mother would not be visiting had been broken up when a young boy named Kenta had taken refuge in her room, avoiding whatever tests they wished to run on him, and he started to tell her about everything around them.

She tilted her head to the right as Kenta's story slowly trailed off, she figured a nurse had just entered the room but that did not explain why he did not dive for cover. "Excuse me, I hate to intrude on your conversation." A rather nice voice stated politely, Shizuka idly wondered if the stranger would not mind reading something to her later if she was a volunteer.

"Yes?" Kenta asked as he shifted nervously on the bed, playing with a fold in the blanket that covered Shizuka's legs.

"I am looking for Kawai Shizuka, is this the right room?" she asked as Shizuka sat straight up.

"I am her, who are you?" Shizuka asked, her heart speeding up a bit about an unknown visitor after everything her brother said about his adventures.

"Ah, sorry." The girl stated with a nervous laugh and Shizuka heard her move a bit further into the room. "Jonouchi asked me to stop by and keep you company, since he wanted to get some locator cards before the day ended. My name is Motou Yugi." She added as Shizuka heard Kenta gasp in shock.

"You're THE Motou Yugi? The King of Card Games, who beat Maximillion Pegasus in Duelist Kingdom, and the head of the Battle City tournament?" he asked in shock as the newcomer laughed, but it was not a bitter nor arrogant laugh but one that just spoke of amusement at Kenta's reaction.

"That would be me." Yugi stated as Shizuka heard a chair barely scrap across the linoleum floor and Yugi was sitting down. "I thought you would like to hear what is going on with your brother in the tournament so I brought my computer with me."

"Thank you, Motou-san." Shizuka stated with a smile as she relaxed, listening to the rustling of clothing and other things. Kenta was up out of the bed and helping her set her laptop up, she figured, from the boy's excited cooing and the tap of keys. "Aniki said you are engaged, is that true?" she asked with a smile, internally laughing because she swore Yugi had just muttered a few interesting curses.

"I am, to a sweet guy that I can see driving me up the wall in the near future." The other girl stated as Kenta snickered and Shizuka actually laughed this time, pressing a hand to her mouth to stifle the fact that she wanted to laugh out loud. Some more clicks of the computers keys and she felt Kenta settling back on to the bed by her side as Yugi scooted her chair over so that she was sitting by the bed.

"Wow, your brother is dueling Insector Haga." Kenta told Shizuka, who stayed silent because she had no idea why that name should be relevant to her. "He's losing, too."

"Nah, lulling Haga-baka into a false sense of security." Yugi stated as the boy shifted and Shizuka smiled.

"You believe in my brother, Motou-san?" she asked as the other girl tapped her fingertips against the computer in her lap.

"Of course, he's a wild card in this shegbang… he has also improved since Duelist Kingdom, since I duel him about once a month." Yugi replied in a tone that did not quiver or betray and lying to appease her and that made the recovering teenager let out a breath she did not think she was holding in. Shizuka relaxed a bit and listened as Kenta played announcer, making both girls laugh as he added commentary.

* * *

Mazaki Anzu had taken it upon herself to hunt out Satou Yami and persuade him away from Motou Yugi, which was why she stalked through the crowds of people dressed in a strapless red shirt that did not fit right on her frame with a short black skirt and black thigh high stockings that had bows and red, slipper-like shoes. Her brown hair was down and looked rather odd, almost as if she had not washed her hair in a week, with heavy black make-up around her eyes and shiny, red lipstick on her lips. Many cringed away from her, others just whispered, but no one told her anything to her face and she took that as a compliment and a sign that her quest would go well.

She had followed rumors all day and that had led her to the only small river that ran through Domino City, which was near the park that was one of the more secluded and quiet dueling areas. She walked along the path and seen Yami was laying in the grass with his hands folded under the black jacket that he was using to pillow his head, the duel disc still attached to his arm. Her breath caught and noted that his hair obviously spiked out and he was wearing a pair of tight black jeans with a sleeveless leather top that fit him well and had silver buckled straps going up the front from waist to the last one that was at least two inches wide around his throat. The golden puzzle rested above his navel and glinted innocently in the sunlight while the trap was brown and slack around his neck. She was mentally stripping him down while he slept, which caused him to shiver in his moment of relaxation. "Yami-kun!" Anzu shrieked and began to attempt to run towards him, but her shriek caused him to sit bolt upright.

"Banshee?" he asked shaking his head, turning a bit and seeing the approaching brunette. "What the hell is that?" he asked himself while grabbing his jacket and getting to his feet, slinging it around his shoulders like a cape. Approaching him was a brunette in attire that, while nice in coordination of color, did not work for her body and made him cringe. It made him appreciate his Hikari's fickleness about her clothes, as well as Mai's sharp eye since the blond woman had been the one that forced his Hikari to buy most of her skirts and such.

"We so match!" she stated excitedly, hands clasped in front of her as she came to a stop with a wide smile and a leaning forward a bit to show off her lack of clevage. She ignored the odd look that crossed his face as he turned to head down the path away from her, only she was not going to let him go that easily. "Yami-kun, why don't we go out to a late lunch? I'm sure Yugi-chan would not mind you accompanying one of her friends." She purred in a tone she believed was seducative and tried to latch on to his arm, only to have him pull away before her nails could sink into his bicep.

"Last time I checked you and my Hikari were not friends but rivals and on that note I doubt she would appreciate you using her name in such an informal manner." Yami remarked with a narrowing of his eyes, but Anzu was not listening. She did not care about his defense of her rival and enemy, she would make him see her since Yugi was busy with other things.

"Rivals are secretly friends, Yami-kun." She sweetly stated and continued to follow him as he picked up his pace a bit, hoping that she would get the clue and leave him alone. "Please? It is only lunch." She whined as he shivered and came to a stop and turned to her.

"No, not going to happen." Yami hissed out as he rounded on her, but she did not take the hint than. "I am not interested in you. One, I love Motou Yugi and I will not betray her for a person of your _sort_ and two, I hate those that lie to themselves." He snarled as she ignored what he said and smiled sweetly again and he twitched and slapped his forehead with his left hand, turning to continue down the path. "She's ignoring me, great." He muttered, biting back a whimper, as she continued to follow him like a lost puppy. With a sigh he glanced around for an escape, but only found a rather dark person sitting on a bench in front of him.

"Come on, Yami-kun, it will be fun!" Anzu whined as he batted her hands away from him, having the sudden urge to Mind Crush her but he restrained that urge because he was in public and had no means of hiding the body in such a forum.

"Excuse me." A soft voice stated as he paused by the bench and turned to the person on the bench. "Are you participating in Battle City, too?" she asked without looking up at him and barely moving her lips.

"Of course he is, can't you tell from the duel disc?" Anzu sneered as Yami batted her hands away from him, yet again. He was a step away from slapping the annoying girl, which was saying much about his patience.

"Ignore her, she has nothing better to do than stalk people." Yami remarked as the doll-like girl cracked no smile or anything. "I am a participant in Battle City." He added as she glanced up at him.

"Than I challenge you!" she stated with a small smile as Yami stared down the girl, giving Anzu the chance to latch on to his arm. This resulted in Yami ripping his arm out of her grasp and causing the brunette to fall back from the force, but she just stared up at him with a blush.

"Do not ever do that again." He sternly told the brunette before turning to the girl on the bench.

* * *

Back at the hospital, Otogi Ryuuji had been visiting his comatose father when he heard the familiar voice of Motou Yugi. He ran a hand through his black hair, which was pulled back in his trademark ponytail, and squared his shoulders to enter the room and apologize to Yugi for his attitude in the beginning and to clear the waters between them. Running his hands down his black t-shirt and than dusting off his green cargo, he politely knocked on the frame of the door. "I am sorry to interrupt your gathering, ladies." He stated with a grin, his green eyes sparkling… but it was lost on the two girls. He noted that Yugi, while looking relaxed in her faded blue jeans with an un-tucked red button down shirt with the sleeves rolled to her elbows, had her laptop in her lap and the auburn haired teenage girl was in the hospital bed with with bandages around her eyes.

"Black hair and green eyes with an earring." Yugi told her friend who tilted her head to the side, in place of any facial expressions. "Otogi-san, is your father doing well?" she asked as he nodded absently, staring openly at the girl in the hospital bed with his jaw dropped a bit. She was beautiful! He suddenly blushed as Yugi was grinning now, which made him blush and nervous at the same time.

"He is doing better, Motou-san, the doctors say that the comatose state saved him from the stroke he was throwing himself towards… which I do not understand at all." Otogi answered as he continued to stare at the other girl.

"He has a nice voice, Yugi-chan, how does he look beyond coloring?" Shizuka asked in a loud stage whisper as Otogi was now red and both were laughing.

"No, you know I can't!" Yugi mockingly whined as they were now laughing. He watched the tri-color haired girl pick the laptop up from her lap and sit it on the edge of the bed and picked up her bag before she got to her feet. "Otogi-san, I need to run an errand… would you mind keeping Shizuka-chan here company? We have been following her brother's dueling." She asked as the dark haired boy nodded, inwardly he was jumping up and down and squealing about the chance to get to know Yugi's friend! "If Jonouchi stops by, I left an hour ago due to an emergency. If you do anything to her that is bad, they will not find the body." She told him as he paled and stood stiff and snapped off a salute.

"I will be the perfect gentleman, Motou-san." He stated with a nod and serious expression while Yugi palmed her face.

"Shizuka-chan, if anything bad happens remember what Kenta told you." With that Yugi left and Otogi moved to take the seat where the girl had been and picked up the laptop.

"He told me to scream bloody murder and to kick anything that moves." She sweetly told a now sweating Otogi. "Yugi-chan said she would leave her laptop here until I get out on Friday and that she would send the official bag over with Mokuba tomorrow."

Yugi paused outside the doorway as both fell into their own little world, getting to know one another with the occasional statement about Jonouchi and dueling. It was a precaution to make sure they got along, nothing else, so she left everything else to fate and made her way out of the hospital. It took her five minutes to make it out the main doors and down the sidewalk, crossing the street into a nice little grouping of shrubs and trees around a cement ground with wooden benches arranged around six evenly spaced granite ables that had chessboards carded and painted into the top. "I have been waiting for you, Motou-san." A familiar voice stated as she spun around and came face-to-face with someone she never thought she'd see again.

* * *

Yami took in the attire of his opponent and found that the teenage girl, maybe child, was rather interesting in her looks. She wore a knee length black dress that had puffy shoulders and bell sleeves and a high collar, the hem of the dress and sleeves trimmed in inch-wide delicate white lace. A white apron covered her front as her legs were clad in white silk stockings with black buckle shoes that had a small heel and silver buckles. Her hair was black as night and fell straight over her shoulders, only seen against the white of the apron, while her pale face was brought out by black make-up around her equally dark eyes with black lipstick coloring her lips. He could see three bars piercing the skin above the bridge of her nose, between her blank eyes, with a silver ring in her bottom lip. "I challenge you." She repeated as her eyes moved to stare up at him with an innocent smile curling her lips. "I have a card that you have to earn, he said that if you beat me I can give it to you with a free conscience but if you don't I have to go challenge Motou Yugi."

"What is your reason for this?" Yami demanded as he stood fully before her, arms crossed with eyes narrowed in a suspicious look.

"Don't trust that freak, Yami-kun." Anzu stated as they ignored her. This was not the bruentte's idea of snagging her future boyfriend, considering he was paying more attention to the freaky goth girl. She had gone through all that trouble to attempt to dress like Yugi only to have him totally ignore her in favor of a girl that had no taste! Who would wear such a dark and heavy dress in this weather? Better yet, who would try to look like a child?

"Curiosity." She stated and offered a hand to him, not losing her smile. "I am a member of a small club called the Rare Hunters and they call me Strings, for I love puppets and devoted myself to learning the art of puppetry, doll crafting, and fashion. I do apologize if this deck I use is not what you expect of me, but I gave up dueling a couple years ago. This deck was also based around the one card you want." She stated as Yami politely took her hand in a firm handshake, taking a few steps back after he released her hand and let her get to her feet. "Even with that small handicap in your favor, do you accept my challenge?" she asked, cutey tilting her head to the side as Anzu was all but shouting in the background now.

"I do accept your challenge." Yami stated with a nod as she sighed, pouting a bit while rolling her right sleeve up to show the duel disc. "Is there something wrong?" he asked, a bit confused.

"I so wanted to challenge Motou-san, since she is close to Kujaku-san, and see if they could help me with a project." She whined as the teenage boy decided to let the subject drop, taking a position about five feet down the path from the girl while Anzu sat on the bench. "Let us begin now." Strings cheerfully stated as they drew their opening hands.

"Go Yami-kun!" Anzu cheered as both paused in arranging their hands to glare at the lone spectator.

"Do remember manners, I would appreciate it if you did not cheer." Strings dryly stated with a glare aimed at the brunette, who ignored her. "How do you stand her?" the girl asked as Yami sighed.

"She is a stalker with issues, I do not since she ignores me." He told the black haired duelist, who shivered. "Stalker issues?" he asked as her nose twitched a bit.

"I would rather not discuss that in public." Strings stated quickly and with a shiver as she looked down at her hand. "Since I issued the challenge, would you…" she trailed off with a motion of her hand as Yami chuckled, it seemed he was stalling too much for her.

"I must insist you go first, since it is only polite." Yami stated with a mock bow as the gothic teen blushed and drew a card.

"Your so noble." Anzu stated as Yami cringed, he really wanted to know how to get the brunette to leave.

"Than I play one magic card face down and one monster face down." She declared placing both cards in their place as they appeared on the field and waved for Yami to go. He drew a card and slipped it into the middle of his hand and thought about his move, than he mimicked her by placing on magic/trap card down with one monster face down. "I see you stick by your strategy, Yami-san, and it is very admirable." Strings stated as she drew a card.

"Oh?" he asked as Anzu began a cheering routine that made both duelists shiver.

"You, unlike many duelist, do not go into the duel with guns blazing. You are cautious and patient, much like a chess player, until you get a feel for your opponet's own strategy." The Gothic teenager pointed out as she played the card she drew in attack mode, causing the card to appear beside the face down defense card and a hideous green work with gold segment breakers and an eye for a tongue and red spines appeared— the Worm Drake, attack 1400 and defense 1500. "Regal and honorable in your ways, rarely reckless and always collected." She mused as the fingers of her free hand twitched while she waved for him to go, watching with a smile as he drew a card and tucked it into the side of his hand.

"I would have to say the same from you. Besides my Hikari, you duel like a refined lady with your cool control and calculated moves." He remarked placing another card face down in defense mode as she giggled and brought a hand up to cover her smile. "Your turn, dear lady." He said as she brought her hand down and drew a card.

"I will switch my defense card to attack." Strings declared as she switched it and the illusion appeared above the switched card, in the form of a nearly human looking glob called Humanoid Slim, attack 800 and defense 2000. "Now I will use Polymerization to summon the Humanoid Worm Drake in attack mode." She proudly stated as both cards disappeared and the creature that appeared from the Fusion Deck look like the brother of the Curse of Dragon or even something from a sci-fi movie, with its bluish silver and the body was worm like and its attack of 2200 and defense of 2000. "Than I activate my face down card, Quick Attack." She stated as the creature went to attack.

"I activate my own face down spell card— De-Fusion." Yami stated as his card flipped up and the fusion monster split into its two base monsters and Strings ended her turn with a sigh.

"Well played." She remarked with a nod as Yami drew a card.

"I switch one card to attack mode." He stated as the first card switched and Gazelle the King of Mystical Beasts appeared in his primal glory, with an attack of 1500 and defense of 1200. "Attack her Humanoid Slime." He ordered as the beast darted forward and took the aqua creature out with a swipe, taking her life points from 5000 to 4300. "Before I end my turn I will tribute Gazelle and my face down card to summon one card in defense mode." He stated as the two cards were moved and he put the one card face down.

"Kick her ass, Yami-kun!" Anzu stated as she jumped up and down like a cheerleader as Yami turned and glared at her, but she did not stop.

"It would be nice if you stayed silent, you are embarrassing me with your lack of manners." He snapped as she pouted and he turned back to Strings. "I would apologize, but we are not associated with another in any way." He added as Strings shrugged and drew a card.

"Tis fine." She stated waving the hand that held her drawn card before she put that card face-down in defense mode. "I am used to such people, they are freakishly common in society." That was said in a bored tone as he chuckled. Yami knew that he had found a friend, if not a possible kindred spirit, that he would not mind introducing to Yugi himself. "Now I play Jam Breeding Machine." She declared and pulled another card from her hand and slipped it into a slot as a large, semi-circular machine with yellow metal plates forming an edging around the open places and the segments and a round opening at the top. "It will produce a slim token during each of my stand-by phases, if you are unfamiliar with it." She noted as it spat out a glob that turned into a Slime token (attack 500/defense 500), which was in attack mode on her side of the field.

"That is a risk you are taking, all things considered." Yami commented as he drew a card.

"Why does that matter? Kick her ass!" Anzu stated as Yami ignored her and drew a card while Strings titled her head to the side and glared at the annoying brunette.

"You are very shallow and a bit delusional, as well." Strings stated coldly as Anzu glared at the goth and stormed halfway across the 'playing field' with her hands at her sides and in fists. "Do not get into something you cannot finish, I will not be as kind as your other opponents." The goth continued, eyes narrowed and teeth bared a bit as she lifted her head up with a superior look on her face.

"Can you both save the cat fight till later?" Yami drawled out as Strings blushed in embarrassment, having let her emotions out a bit too far while Anzu tried to look cute, but he just stared them both down with a neutral look. "First I will I switch my defense card to attack mode." He stated switching the card as rather intimidating knight in purple armor with gold accents appeared with a large sword in hand, the Buster Blader with his attack points of 2600 and defense of 2300. "Than I will summon Beta the Magnet Warrior in attack mode." He continued putting that card down as the yellow, round bodied warrior with magnets for ears and fingers appeared (attack 1700, defense 1600). "Now, Buster Blader attack Drake Worm!" he declared as the pusedo-knight took one step and made a sharp, downward slash with its massive sword and the worm was gone, as was 1200 life points bringing Strings down to 3100. "Beta, attack her Slime Token!" he added as the Magnet Warrior went to do so.

"I activate Jam Defender." His opponet calmly stated as she put the card into its proper place, causing Revival Jam to move between the token and the attack. The aqua creature was destroyed as the goth sighed. "Now I sacrifice 1000 life points to activate Revival Jams effect." She added as her life points dropped to 2100 and Revival Jam appeared on the field, again, in defense mode.

"Ouch." He stated as she looked resigned to what she was doing. "Didn't expect that." He added as she shrugged.

"If I had kept my original deck, things would be easier." She admitted as he nodded and she drew a card, her face suddenly lighting up in a true smile. "Seeing I have no other means of guarding my tokens and the fact that I have yet to draw the needed card, I play Nightmare Steelcage." She cheerfully stated slipping the card into the proper slot and a steel cage materialized around a surprised Yami. "This makes sure you can't do anything for two of your turns!" now she was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, another Slim Token being spat from the machine and landing by its counterpart.

"Okay." He muttered and drew a card as Anzu began whining again. "Go ahead, I've got nothing." He remarked as she drew a card and groaned and forgone her own turn as well as a third token was spat out.

"I knew I should have gone searching for the four-leaf clover this morning!" Strings whined as Yami drew a card and than placed it face down, the card appearing behind his two monsters as he than played a third in defense mode. He ended his turn as the cage disappeared.

"Troubles?" he asked as she drew a card and looked ready to scream.

"Yes." She muttered and put down a trap card, the Swords of Revealing Light, causing a row of white energy swords to separate the field into two halves and revealed his face down card to be Kuriboh. Than she played Pot of Greed, drawing two extra cards from her deck, and letting out a frustrated sound before ending her turn with a fourth Slime Token on the field.

"No luck?" he asked drawing a card as she shrugged. "Well, I hate to break up your chances but… I play Dark Hole." He stated smugly and put the trap card in place, watching as a swirling black hole appeared in the center of the field, sucking in all the monsters while Strings groaned with the lose of her entire tribute line but the Jam Breeding Machine was still present so all was not lost.

"It really bites because you still have all of your life points!" the goth whined as Yami shrugged.

"Pure luck." He admitted, spreading his hands out in front of him. With a laugh he looked at his hand again and than put a card face down in defense mode, ending his turn. Strings sighed and drew a card, whimpered, and placed her own card face down in defense mode before ending her turn, a Slime Token was spat out and Yami drew a card and laid that in defense mode and ended his turn.

"Do something!" Anzu shrieked, reminding them that she was still there.

"Did you hear something?" Strings asked as Yami shrugged.

"Not really." He answered as the goth drew a card twitched and put that face down and a card appeared by the Jam Breeding Machine and she ended her turn, a third Slime Token being produced. Yami drew a card and laughed. "I tribute both of my face down cards to summon this card in defense mode and end my turn." He stated putting the card down after moving the previous cards to the card graveyard. He ended his turn as the Swords of Revealing Light faded away and Strings drew a card and looked ready to cry.

"I forfeit." She declared as Yami stood straight up. "You summoned a high level card, I have no defenses, and you will take me out in one attack. It would be best to forfeit." She reasoned holding her hand over her deck as Yami just stared at her in shock while Anzu cheered for his win.

"That's a first." He commented as they both walked forward and shook hands. "You dueled well, minus the run of bad luck." He remarked as she sighed and pulled her deck from the slot and turned it over and began to laugh as he looked at her oddly.

"I would have still lost!" she declared and showed him why, Osiris the Heaven Dragon was on the bottom of the deck! He laughed at that stroke of luck, for him at least, as she shook her head and offered it to him. "You won it fair and square." She stated as he reluctantly took it from her and slipped it on top of his deck, vowing to shuffle it when he had the chance.

"Now, I believe I owe you an introduction to my Hikari." Yami stated as both of Strings's eyebrows went up in surprise. "I believe you both will get along rather well and I did promise…"

"Hikari?" Strings asked as he nodded.

"My pet name for her, since we are engaged." He admitted as the girl was now starry-eyed with hands clasped in front of her.

"Before anything, can you do one thing for me?" the goth girl asked, grabbing his wrist as he looked curious. "Can you bring your arm up like this while holding your jacket?" she asked bringing her right arm up in front of her mouth with her first touching her shoulder. Yami frowned but grabbed the edge of his coat and mimicked her and she laughed, clapping her hands together. "If only it was a tiny bit longer you would make the _perfect_ Bela Lugosi vampire!" she added as he let his arm drop and stared at her in question.

"Bela who?" he asked as she reached out and patted his shoulder, ignoring the fuming brunette behind them.

"Don't worry about it, if Motou-san does not know than I will educate you both." She stated with a smile as they both set off again. "So, how did you both meet?" she asked clasping her hands in front of her like a lady while Anzu trailing like a lost puppy. Yami could not help but laugh as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants, amused by the fact that as soon as she asked the first question she continued to rattled off more and more questions. The duel may have been a severe let down at the end, but he knew that the entertainment that Strings would bring to the group would last longer.

* * *

**A/N:**I know, and it has been pointed out to me, that the Strings versus Yami duel is anti-climatic... but be realistic! Not all duelist are **_that _**lucky! Marcy be, how can a person draw the cards they need in the right time all the time? Selling said soul to the devil is out, so figured this would be the best time to have a few losing duels. To be honest, this will happen at least once or twice more to set up for the end (it is my only regret that I did not have that happen in Duelist Kingdom, minus Yugi's forfeit). Changed hte duel a tad bit and, even if no one has complained about my duels, I do look up the cards and try to fix some of the original series mistakes. On that... yes, I know Strings is male in the anime but there is not enough female characters and I needed a third person in there for the Senior Projects.

To your comment, Rocky Oberlin, Nepha is a very twisted character and a bit of her history will come out in the end of Battle City.

On that note, the poll was up to seven people last I seen and will be up till... around September 3. By that point I should be nearly ready to start posting again (since there is an interlude to this chapter that will be up on Wednesday).


	22. INTERLUDE: Painful Remberances

**INTERLUDE: Painful Remembrances**

_You awake! Tighten your hand  
__It is time: you raise  
__The door will be closed, open it again  
__Remember the emotion_

_Then you awake! And you recall  
__Once again  
__Open the door_

_Huh? What? You do not want it?  
__That still belongs to you  
__All that you lost_

_Will do nothing anymore but one!_

- _Destati _from Kingdom Hearts OST

* * *

An old ache in Shadi's heart had returned after he had first met Motou Yugi, first in the stateroom of the yacht that was leaving Pegasus's private island for Japan after the Duelist Kingdom tournament and actually spoke to her in the soul room of the Pharaoh. He had realized this once he had returned to the safety of Egypt's sands and his own, isolated cell underground where he had taken refuge during the war and after he fell into a deep depression about losing the young woman that he had raised as his apprentice and thought of as his own daughter. He had spent weeks ensconced in his safe haven with his head in his hands, trying to keep the painful memories at bay. All the lonely millennia he had spent searching for them, wanting to at least know they were doing well and happy, becoming a shadow of his former self as his abilities seemed to lay dormant with his solitude.

Than he realized the danger brewing in Japan with the movement of the tainted Isis Ishtar, who had used memories not her own to get what she wanted from the tombs in the area. He had stolen back two items, but the other she had would have to stay with her because she would be the unwitting vassal that got them to their correct owners. All it would take was a few years and a lot of faith in the Gods to make sure they arrived with the right people sooner rather than later.

That was another memory that made his heart clench, it was before he first met Yugi. He remembering stalking through the corridors of the Ishtar's dark, underground home and felt the despair of pain and smelt the blood that made him sick. He had met a lonely woman, a beautiful if not pale Japanese woman that was being held hostage by the family, who's spirit still flashed in her eyes. She had not screamed to anything, but she watched him without fear or a care to why he was there but when a scream broke the solitude, she had flinched and bowed her head and began to cry and he left her to her sorrow.

He could not help her and she did not ask anything of him, but he knew that the scream broke her heart. When he found the blond boy and the father with grinning sister, he seen the blood and the fear on the boys face and the disgust that was on the face of the teenage boy that stood in the shadows. It was in those moments he knew that that family would be trouble, he knew that he should have killed off the family of Tomb Keepers before the war ravaged the lands and destroyed so much.

The robed man steeled his nerves as he looked down into the shocked eyes of Motou Yugi, who was a year older and a bit more paranoid. Those eyes reminded him of his only apprentice who became a master of his own repute, who had been happy with everything she had but lost her life to a spoiled little princess. Standing this close to her, in the real world, he could feel a spark of power that he had thought lost long ago in the cycles. When a red clad Dark Magician appeared by her, steadying her, he almost broke out into a smile. It had been millennia since he had last seen Maram, who had went into the Shadow Realm with Mahaad and several others of the royal court after the war.

He issued his challenge to Yugi, who looked a bit confused but let him led her to one of the chess tables. He was prepared to duel her in a game of Duel Monsters, using the Battle City rules, with the winner gained two cards—in Yugi's case she would be putting her Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon on the line and Shadi had put up his Silent Magician Level 4 and Level 8. She had refused, to his pleasure, and said that she did not want to give up two cards that she valued and Shadi had noted that Maram was ready to dance around happily. So they settled on a game of chess, Yugi wagering her duel disc and Shadi keeping the two Silent Magician cards on the table, and within moments the table had been set up with Egyptian themes pieces, ones that Shadi had had magically created right before their eyes. As Yugi settled into planning her first move and strategy while Shadi let his mind wander.

Maram. Shadi remembered the first time he met the boy, it had been the rare time that he and his apprentice had been in the court of Beryl when one of the nobles in her court thought it would be amusing to put on a public display of power by torturing the boy. He had watched his apprentice turn the soldiers to stone and carefully sweep the boy up into her arms, not caring if her attire was ruined by dirt and blood and carry the boy from the room. Beryl had the noble killed, his family stripped of their titles and responsibilities. The boy had readily accepted the offer to be her apprentice, showing his determination to make his savior proud of him.

Maybe that was why Maram was staying close to Yugi, he could see the same spark in her and did not want her to have the same fate as before. Shadi remembered the shock, fear, and anger the younger Dark Magician had gone through when his savior was murdered and Shadi still remembered that day all too well. Maram had been the one to hold her hands when his apprentice when into a forced labor, he had flinched with her screams of pain and her pleadings to the Gods. The younger Magician had cried when she smiled at him and said she was proud of his achievements and dreams, been the one that she tasked her final request to, and the one that had presented the Pharaoh with his son while Shadi had gone off to tell Beryl the bad news.

He blinked a few times and realized the game was mostly done, she was dangerous and his defenses were in a precarious position. Within five or six moves, they were butting heads and at the point where the wrong move would mean disaster for either side. Shadi knew now that he could not afford to live in the past when facing Yugi, that he would have to let things play out by themselves and not interfere. He would not become his enemies!

Shadi covertly glanced at Maram, who was leaning over Yugi's shoulder and looking much like the kid he remembered. As boy he had been curious as a kitten, always looking over his apprentice's shoulder and asking questions, always surprised when his apprentice would pull him around to sit on her lap while she explained or demonstrated things. That curiosity had not been lost when he was a teenager, either, he stayed at her shoulder.

His chest tightened a bit, yet again, as he watched the past merge with the present. Making a move, he swore that he would not let history repeat itself and if that spoiled princess returned he would kill her himself.

"Checkmate, Shadi." Yugi stated as he stared at the board in surprise, suppressing the urge to laugh. Resting his elbows on the table he watched her sit back with a grin, one that made him break his neutral façade and smile. He would have to devise a training schedule, if that was the case, because he could see that the power that was lost would be making a return.

* * *

**A/N: **The poll has exactly 10 voters and I will be keeping it up for another week, this time no longer a blind poll. This will be the last chance to decide the path this will take.


	23. DREAMS BECOME REALITY

**O. DREAMS BECOME REALITY**

_Light bulbs buzz,  
I get up  
And head to my drawer  
I wish there was more  
I could say  
Another fairytale fades to gray  
I've lived on hope  
Just like a child  
Walking that mile  
Faking that smile  
All the while  
Wishing my heart had wings  
Well tonight, I'm going to be  
The kind of woman I'd want my daughter to be_

_- Stronger Woman _by Jewel

* * *

After his duel on Wednesday, Yami had come to regret introducing Yugi to Strings. They had spent the entire night animatedly discussing topics and things he did not understand, nor did he want explained to him while they were together. He had gone to bed when the settled in to watch some old, black-and-white movies Jonouchi had left over the weekend before with some notebooks and sketch pads. When Thursday dawned he had woken up and found them on the floor, still awake, only now papers were scattered about and they were drinking tea with another movie on. He had retreated after a quick breakfast, since both were still in their own little world, and swore that they would never be left alone without at least three buffers in the room with them.

Unfortunately nothing else of interest happened on Thursday, since the duels were down to the wire and everyone was now scrambling to get six locator cards before the deadline. Well, with the exception of a certain blonde boy. Jonouchi's track record now had the defeat of several, prominent duelists— including Insector Haga, Mako Tsunami, and several others that were never given names— and he had achieved the number of needed locator cards and retreated to see his sister, luckily when Ryuuji was not visiting. Shizuka told him everything she now knew about dueling and made him blush when she said she heard all of his duels, even showed him the computer as he fiddled with it and managed to bring the site up with the speculation on who would move on. That was followed by asking him if he would not mind if she asked their mother if she coul transfer to his school, since she made a few friends in her hospital stay. Later that day the bandages were removed and they shared a tearful hug when the doctor declared the operation to be a complete success and after that the eight finalist were announced, and they heard it since Shizuka had not closed out the program on the open laptop: Bakura Ryou, Satou Yami, Kaiba Seto, Ishtar Malik, Ishtar Rishid, Jonouchi Katsuya, a GHOUL, and Ishtar Isis.

No, this part focuses around what happened early Friday morning at the Ishtar apartment with the woman prisoner named Youko. The dark haired woman was sitting in her bed already dressed for the day, in one of the several formless linen dresses she had been given, with a white sash around her waist and a shawl wrapped around her throat. She was pale, having not been outside for long periods of times since her kidnapping fourteen years before, and her eyes were a bit dull, having not felt true happiness in just as long. This morning was the anniversary of her kidnapping, of the death of her husband at the hands of the now dead Ishtar patriarch, and she felt ready to cry, but could not bring herself to shed any more tears. She had mourned her husband up until she watched the man had killed him be killed by the very thing he coveted control of— the Shadows. Those living shadows had twisted around her, chilling her to the bone with their odd whispers, and judged her before they viciously attacked and tore into the man she despised.

Shaking her head to dispel those memories, she slid off of the bed and padded over to the lone window in her room and watched the lights of the buildings in the distance and the streetlights that lined the streets. She had savored her first day in her new prison, actually being able to see the world instead of trying to remember every detail of her childhood home and later the cities she had seen on her travels before settling down, marrying the man that she loved with all her heart and becoming a professional photographer based in Domino City. After that she had given birth to two beautiful babies, a girl with the eyes that were darker than her husbands and a boy with eyes lighter than her husbands. That day had been the best in her life!

All things come to an end and she found that out the hard way. Two years after the birth of her children, in December, someone broke into their quaint little home. She remembered vaguely grabbing a wooden baseball bat, a gag gift from a friend of her's in reference to having to 'beat the girls and boys away with the stick' when her children grew up, and had taken out one of the four intruders. The other two than ganged up on her, throwing the bat to the side after they got her on the ground and than hauled her on to her feet, with a firm grip on both arms in warning, and to the door of the master bedroom. After that she heard an argument between her husband and a man, which resulted the crying of her two babies, in the nursery that was diagonal from the master bedroom. Her husband was silenced and she heard his body hit the ground with a muffled 'thump' followed by the silencing of one of the wails, which made her stomach turn while one man tightened his grip on her arms. The moment the Ishtar patriarch had stepped from the nursery with her son in his arms and a smug look on his face hands covered in blood, she knew that the man deserved to be tortured to death. She remembered the anger and hate that welled up in her being when his blood covered hands tainted the once pristine white blanket her baby boy had been wrapped in while his words chilled her to the bone, but did not put out the hatred that burned in her heart. He had happily told her that her husband was dead and so was her worthless daughter and that was enough to make his life worthless in her eyes.

Now she was thinking in circles, a sure sign she had been left alone without much human contact.

Youko brought her right hand up and rested her entire palm against the cool glass. Malik, who's name left a bitter taste in her mouth when she forced herself to call him that, had given her hope and revived that fighting spark in her heart when he told her about the tournament. She would never tell him why she reacted as she did when he showed her what they had released about Yugi, it was not the right time to reveal any of that. Slowly she brought her left hand up and held it against her chest, feeling her own heartbeat speed up with her now racing thoughts. "I believe that they will get their due." She whispered to the empty room, ignoring the fact that her voice was raspy and that her eyes were narrowed.

She jumped nearly a foot in the air when the door to her prison was flung open and Rishid stood in his black robes with a compact dueling disc, she knew that much since Malik had explained it to her when he returned a few days ago in a bad emotional state, visible on his arm. He grabbed her arm and pulled her from the room, but she did not protest as he pulled her towards the door of the apartment with a determined look. "What is going on?" Youko asked as he opened the door and stuck his head out.

"Now is the best time to get you out of here, Youko." Was all he told her as he pulled her into the corridor, but now she was going along with him. "I will have to repent much for my hand in your tribulations and this will begin my path to redemption." He added when they paused at the door to the stairs, which he opened for her and ushered her down. She mulled over his words and truly hoped he would be fine after this, he was not a bad boy in any stretch but just misguided by one he trusted.

Everyone moment that passed was an eternity of debating between if this was reality or a dream. It was odd that no one dared to spare them a glance when they ran down the sidewalk in their attire, but in Japan they possibly seen worse and thought nothing of it. It took a good bit to suppress the urge to stop and look around in awe at things she had taken for granted, at the sites she missed, and Rishid did well on keeping her mind focused on the situation at hand.

* * *

About five minutes into Rishid and Youko's mad dash through he streets of Domino City, a giddy Motou Yugi was standing outside of KaibaLand in a black business suit with a dark gold dress shirt with her hair left down and falling to her waist. Everything was already prepared, had been quadruple checked before she even arrived at seven that morning, and now they had a nerve wracking two hours to wait till the opening ceremony was done and the semi-finals began. Despite the gray sky and impending rain storm Yugi was feeling crossed between hyper and nervous— hyper due to the sugar she and ingested over the course of one full day and nervous because she would be on camera and she had to put all those coaching lessons from Kaiba and his employees to work. She hoped this small bit of peace lasted…

"Motou-san!" a male voice shouted, sounding rather urgent as she groaned and squeezed her eyes shut. Not now! Opening her eyes she seen a frantic Malik standing before her, dressed in a nice pair of black pants with a white t-shirt that had black Japanese lettering down the left half and a traditional samurai on horseback at the hem, and a confused Ryou, who was in jeans and a plain gray hooded sweatshirt.

"I was enjoying my moment of peace." She dryly told them as Malik bit his lip.

"My brother is bringing someone with him, someone that needs to be kept from my sister." The blonde told her urgently as she frowned, it was unusual for Malik to be so unhinged. "Please." He pleaded as she blinked a few times, her thoughts derailed as he grabbed her shoulders.

"Sure, finalists can bring family members with them if they wish." She told them as they just froze at her statement. "You didn't read that far into the info sent last night after the afternoon announcement, did you?" she asked them that with an arched eyebrow and arms crossed over her chest, causing Malik to let go of her shoulders and blush in embarrassment. "I'll stay out here till they arrive and escort you to the waiting area for the duelists, if that helps."

"Thank you!" he stated and spontaneoulsy hugged her, causing Ryou's jaw to drop at the odd show of affection while Yugi did not move a muscle. It was than the blonde drew back with a pained sound, rubbing his head while a disgruntled Maram appeared at Yugi's back with his staff extended to where Malik's head had been.

"Yugi, why is the Dark Magician here?" Ryou asked carefully, afraid of accidentally insulting someone, while his Yami just mentally blinked a few times and than snickered. This all happened just as Yugi adopted a false look of innocent that disturbed him a bit, Malik just shivered beside him and closed his eyes to rid himself of the image.

"Do you really want to know?" she asked in a tone that Ryou had only heard in his head from his Yami when he was plotting something illegal that he wished to do when could manifest his body, as well as from the _Hogan's Heroes_episodes Jonouchi had forced him to watch the one week the white haired boy had been stuck at the Game Shop.

"That's alright." He quickly answered, waving his hands in front of him and shaking his head while she snickered.

"Malik!" a voice shouted as all three turned and seen two people running towards them, both were slightly out of breath, but made Malik sigh in relief and flash a worn smile as he waved at them.

"I have a feeling things will not go according to plan after this meeting." Maram told Yugi from his position at her back as she grimaced. The Magician did not need to hear her say anything because her body language told him everything.

Yugi made her way back to the entrance and unlocked the doors and entered, moving to the side and holding the doors opened as the four all but ran into the main foyer while she shut the door and made sure it was locked. When she turned to ask Malik, or Ryou, something she seen that one of the bored set-up crews had already whisked them off to the back rooms. Seeing that Maram had already faded into the shadows, she turned back to the doors and seen her Grandfather standing there with a smiling Isis and awkward-yet-annoyed Yami… so she let them in and tried not to shiver when Isis brushed against her.

Shutting the door again she figured Kaiba had his own key so he and Jonouchi could get in that way, if not she'd still have an aide or someone watching out for them. Steeling her nerves she turned and faced a guilty looking old man and a barely-restrained Yami who looked ready to lash out and kill the closest person to him, ironically it was the old man that had been avoiding them since the beginning of Battle City. "You know, don't you?" Sugoroku asked as Yugi tucked her keys away into the inner pocket of her jacket and calmly walked past them, Yami catching up with her as the older man followed along.

"I only know because I was in the right place at the right time." She coldly told him, causing the older man to flinch at her tone. "We will deal with this in private, not here in the open." She added as many watched them pass, but they did not ask her anything since she looked much like Kaiba when he did not have his morning coffee.

* * *

In the waiting room, moments before the trio arrived, Youko was sitting in a nice cushioned chair fidgeting with the hem of the shawl wrapped around her throat and staring at the pastel blue walls and the several posters of duel monsters that hung up in random places. Malik was lounging on the couch, looking rather worn with his right arm thrown over his eyes and his lips twitching occasionally, while his friend Ryou, she vaguely remembered from the rushed introduction they had gotten, was shuffling his deck of cards while sitting on the floor. Rishid had rushed from the room to do something, she suspected it had something to do with something he seen before entering. She turned her head and stared at the door when she heard voices and footsteps approaching, one sounded rather angry while the others was familiar…

The door was shoved open as she watched the formally dressed young woman from earlier, who she had seen in passing, stalk in with a young man in black leather, from his overcoat to the collar and shirt and pants, move cautiously around her to watch the discussion from a safe distance. "You were funneling information to her this entire time! Ever since you gave me the Millennium Puzzle, knowing what she wanted to happen!" she shouted in annoyance with hands balled into fists at her side. Youko had jumped at the cold fury in that shout, repressing a snicker because that sudden transition from relatively silent to loud had caused him to roll off the couch. "I trusted you all those years…"

"I did it for your own good." The old man in overalls with a hat and gray, spikey hairstyle protested in a soothing tone that most adults pulled on their kids.

"My own good? How is being a step away from being a slave for my own good!" she growled out as he crossed his arms over his chest and stubbornly stared the teenager down.

"Sugoroku?" Youko whispered as she got to her feet, causing the teenager to whirl around in surprise and the old man to look even more shocked, if not a little pale. As Youko moved forward, she noted that Malik had gotten back up and was sitting on the couch watching her closely while the boy in leather was now standing beside the door with an oddly intense look in his slightly familiar calculating red eyes. This reassured that knot of anxiety in her chest that she was safe, no one would do anything to her if she spoke out.

"It is not possible!" the old man sputtered out as the teenage girl stepped back to let Youko prowl forward. "Your dead!" he added as Youko growled at that her hands now forming fists, ignoring the paint hat came from her nails biting into her palms.

"You dare to claim ignorance in this?" Youko demanded in a tone that could have made a Yuki-onna envious. "I heard you and that wanna-be Priestess bitch discussing my health and everything over the years! That was the only way I knew my daughter was still alive!" she shouted as the teenagers, minus the one in leather, now began eyeing the argument and than the door

"It is the only thing I could do since that vindictive bitch kept a close reign on everything I did!" he retorted, eyes a blaze with fury that matched her own. "She claimed she could see everything I did in the past, present, and future and I was not going to take that risk!"

"Your smarter than that and you are also the only gambler I know that Lady Luck loved." She hissed out as they were stuck in a stare down, neither moving a single muscle but they were trembling in the effort not to. "But no, you played their disgusting game and because of that my son suffered mental and physical pain and my daughter suffered because of the lies you fed her!"

"I was not going to risk her life on a gamble!" he roared, reaching out and grabbing a handful of the formless linen dress while she looked unmoved by his touch. "Legend says that the Tauk…"

"That thrice damned spirit in the Tauk was delusional and only fed the Priestess bitch's own delusions to get what she wanted!" she countered before he could defuse her anger and the situation with a historical monologue.

"How would you know?" he growled out, gritting his teeth as he did. Youko just bared her teeth like an angry dog and carefully uncurled her fingers from the fists they were in and brought her hands to the shawl around her throat and pulled it down to show permanent discolored skin and thin white cuts around her throat in the outline of the Millennium Tauk. It was in great detail, as well, and made the teenage girl flinch with a hand at her own throat but Youko did not see that.

"I should know because that bitch would punished me by putting it around my neck. Every time I refused to listen to her or that bastard she called a father they would put it around my neck and delight in my pain." She explained and dropped the shawl to the ground as Sugoroku drew back, pale again as his fury died with the marking. "I know first hand that the spirit is broken, that she is insane and wants to destroy her first husband and his happiness. She wants to take over a body so she can be free and will do so at any costs." She added as he turned to the door to escape, only to freeze when the leather clad boy waved at him with a devious smile curling his lips.

"Oh no, you have some questions to answer before that." The leather clad teen growled out as a golden outline of the Eye of Ra appeared on his forehead. This action made both Ryou and Malik shiver in fear, especially as the tensions in the room increased to a level that meant someone was going to end up either dying or in an extreme amount of pain soon.

"While it is obvious you both know one another, could you please clue it in for the potential cannon fodder?" Ryou asked, having gotten to his feet at the beginning of the shouting match and moving to sit by an equally confused Malik on the couch. The only reason why he had spoken up, instead of staying in the background, was to hopefully break the tension in the room… and his attempt to do so failed horribly. He only caused Youko to blush in embarrassment, turning to see that the teenage girl that had began arguing with Sugoroku had made her way over to the teen in leather.

"Introductions?" she asked pointing at the tri-color haired couple that she did not know.

"The one by the door is Satou Yami and his fiancee Motou Yugi." Malik automatically answered, rather used to Youko's speech patterns and habits.

"Wait, you are Satou… Yami?" Youko whispered looking over the tri-color haired teenage girl while Sugoroku was now sweating bullets. He knew that this would not turn out very well, but that was only because he knew that Yami would make him suffer despite any protests Yugi may have. To Sugoroku the surname 'Satou' was a warning and curse. "Are you Satou Beryl's boy? You look so much like her, especially your eyes… like rubies." Youko trailed off and walked past Sugoroku to stand before the couple.

"I am." He answered in a calm tone, head tilted up a bit to show that he was proud of his mother and heritage.

"She missed you so much, I remember her talking of you while I was pregnant." Youko confided as he looked surprised by her wistful recollection and the remorseful look on her face. "How is she?" she asked with a hopeful look as Yami looked uneasy.

"I last seen her in April and she seemed fine, if not a little tired and resigned to something. I have not seen her around town since then and she did not tell me where she was staying." He answered as Youko turned her attention to the girl, who was leaning against him.

"Yugi?" she asked the girl, who nodded. This brought tears to Youko's eyes as her hands trembled and their eyes met, causing the older woman to bite her lip as she brought her hands up and rested them on Yugi's shoulders as the teenager stood straight up at the touch. "My little girl grew up to be a real beauty!" she declared in tears and hugged Yugi, who's eyes were now the size of saucers and the room was so quiet a pin could have dropped and echoed.

"My mother is dead." Yugi stated, as if in a daze, as Youko drew back with a stricken look.

"You lived that night, he said you were dead… do you have a scar from when you were around two?" Youko pleaded as she moved her hands to clutch at the lapels of Yugi's jacket with a frantic look on her face. "My red haired daughter, hair you inheirted from your paternal grandmother and an analytical mind that was common in my family with the luck of your grandfather… no matter how moronic his decisions were and are." She stated as Yugi looked uneasy.

"I do have a scar, but no one knew about it… nor the rest of what you said." Yugi stated as she drew away from Yami and Youko and pulled her dress shirt from her pants and began to unbutton the bottom buttons to halfway up. She parted the fabric to show a nasty, faded line that started above her navel and traced along the bottom ridge of her ribs and curved around her right side. "Haruka-basan told me that a friend of… I mean, it was reported to the police before…" Yugi looked a bit lost as Youko pulled her over to the couch and pushed her to sit by a shocked Malik and Ryou while Yami eyed a decptively quiet Sugoroku.

"I never would have dreamed seeing both of my children together again." Youko added with hands clasped in from of her as Ryou shot to his feet and retreated to the other side of the room while the other two stayed on the couch with blank expressions. "My handsome son and beautiful daughter, despite the hardships you have both faced and the lies told to you both." She continued as they glanced at one another and than at her with wide eyes.

"I think this is a shock too many." Ryou told Yami as he moved to stand by the door with the ex-Pharaoh, who was still watching the old man closely. "I say they both pass out."

"No bet." Yami muttered as Youko still stood in front of a shocked Malik and Yugi.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you both…" Youko trailed off as she brought her hands up to her face while the two teens just stared at her, jaws now slack. "That night when my husband, died trying to protect our children that man you called father kidnapped me and my son, later adopting my son into his family and christened him with a new name." Now the other occupanted watched with morbid fascination as Malik mentally though this through before paling to the point where it looked like he would pass out. "What I am trying to say, Malik, is that you are not really an Ishtar… your name is really Motou Katsuro, my victorious son."

"You're my real mother?" he echoed in a daze while pointing at her and than dragging his finger to poke Yugi in the shoulder, but she did not move since she was too shocked. "She is my sister?" he asked in a strangled voice.

"I think we will be needing Kaiba-san to help prove this before anything." Yugi carefully stated as Malik nodded in agreement while Youko looked wounded. "Nothing against you, Okaasan… Youko-san… umm… it is just best to have the proof." The teenage girl stated as Youko relaxed a bit with the logic of that statement, but the opening of the door caused everyone to jump while Jonouchi and Kaiba entered and seen the state everyone was in.

"Let's get this started." Kaiba gruffly stated, looking uneasy as Yugi quickly got to her feet and buttoned the rest of the buttons of her dress shirt and brushed past him and Jonouchi. She was out of hearing distance in a few moments as Kaiba turned to the rest. "What the hell happened?" he demanded of the rest, eyes narrowed as Yami and Ryou slipped out behind him while Youko and Malik just stared at him.

"We will tell you after Battle City when we have the full details ourselves, but can you arrange for a blood test to be done?" Yami asked Kaiba, who scowled at being left out of the loop.

* * *

Yugi had her shirt tucked back in as a woman fussed over her, mostly applying some make-up and pulling back part of her hair into a bun, but the teenage girl had no idea how to take this revelation. It seemed too much like a Hollywood movie to be real! Stuff like this does not just happen! She sighed as the woman bustled away while a man approached her this time, with all the papers she needed with her prepared speech while the judges for the matches were already seated to the side and chattering among themselves. It was than that Mai entered the arena in her dark purple, pin-stripped business suit with a white shirt beneath that and a matching fedora on her head and turned many heads. "Yugi-chan!" she called out as the teen whirled around and stared.

"If you ran the mob scene of that era, I think we would be in trouble now." Yugi bluntly told her with wide eyes, meaning it as a compliment. That caused the blonde to laugh and wink at her with a smirk. "Ready for this?" she asked in a serious tone as the blonde was still cool and calm to Yugi's nervous fidgeting.

"Use that 'devil may care' attitude you had facing Pegasus, Yugi-chan, and you will kill them." Mai stated reaching out and righting Yugi's lapels before she brought a hand up to brush some hair back with the eye of someone that was used to this, which was odd. "You'll be fine, this is the only time you have to go up in front of a television audience."

"Thank you very much, I feel better now." Yugi groaned, squeezing her eyes shut as the blonde snickered. "I hope to any diety listening that this goes off without a hitch." She muttered under her breath, eyes now open as one of the crew members motioned for her and Mai to make for the set-up podium for the beginning of the end of Battle City.

Yugi swore she heard Maram laughing in her shadow about a prayer that would probably go unanswered because the gods were too bored.

* * *

**A/N: **Well, the duels have been figured out. This chapter at the drama that comes with most large events, explaining Grandpa a bit and giving Youko a reason for being focused on in one of the chapter. Kind prepared for a backlash now...

On that note, I revised Chapter 15 "Dark Date" a bit... mostly to smooth out Hotaru and Beryl's appearance from what I had... Didn't add any events that are important now but do check out the changes. Battle City should have about three or four more chapters left since only three duels are left.


	24. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?

**P. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?**

_Whatever happens  
We leave it all to chance  
Another heartache  
Another failed romance  
On and on  
Does anybody know  
What we are living for_

_Outside the dawn is breaking  
On the stage that holds  
Our final destiny_

_The show must go on  
The show must go on  
_  
- _The Show Must Go On, _version from "Moulin Rouge"

* * *

The typical opening ceremonies went off without a hitch, all of which had been hosted and put together by Mai who enjoyed the spot light while Yugi steeled herself for her own début. That was how the teenager came to be sitting at a simple wooden table with a pitcher of water and half full glass of water at her left and a board with a large poster of a bracket behind her. At the moment she was fidgeting nervously, twisting a button on her jacket a few hundred times, to the point where it looked ready to fall off, while the camera man seemed to take pity on her and took a few steps towards her only to realize that he was too late. Mai had finished up with her last ceremony, her last speech, and was about to say the cue. "Now to hear a few words from the organizer of Battle City, with the unbiased sponsorship of KaibaCorp, the King of Games herself… Motou Yugi!" Mai declared in a dramatic way as Yugi chuckled, the camera going on as she stared at the red light for a moment while laughing.

"Thank you for your… enthusiastic introduction, too bad this isn't a game show." Yugi commented as a few behind her laughed. "Welcome to the finals of Battle City. The last four days had been rough for everyone with the rush to gather the needed number of locator cards, especially from the hundreds of talented duelers that participated. As of five o'clock yesterday afternoon, a list of eight finalists had been produced from the final tallies. These tallies will not be posted for the public to see, unless it is necessary, and there have not been any protests about these finalist since all duelists have known since last night as well." She stated in hopes of emphasizing the points she needed to with a piercing look at the camera, causing the man to shiver. "Before I announce the names, I would like to turn your attention to the board with the bracket for this finale." She added and stepped to the side as the camera moved up to pan in on the cascading brackets that had numbers going down the row with four brackets, meaning eight lines. "In a little bit my partner, Kujaku Mai, will begin to draw names from a hat and the Semi-Final duels will be set to begin."

"What a match up we will be witnessing, too." Mai drawled, having approached where they were filming while Yugi's back was turned.

"The finalist are, in no particular order: Bakura Ryou, Jonouchi Katsuya, Ishtar Malik, Ishtar Isis, Satou Yami, Kaiba Seto, Ishtar Rishid, and one duelist that prefers to remain anonymous." Yugi stated as the camera moved back and someone handed Mai a silk top hat. "Let the drawing begin." Yugi stated with a grin as she pulled a marker from her jacket pocket and pulled the cap off, than turned to face the brackets.

"One, Kaiba Seto." Mai stated clearly as Yugi wrote it down. "Two, Ishtar Isis." That name followed. "Three, Ishtar Malik… Four, Anonymous… Five, Bakura Ryou… Six, Satou Yami… Seven, Jonouchi Katsuya… Eight, Ishtar Rishid."

* * *

Back in the waiting room, a rather annoyed Kaiba Seto was sitting down in one of the two nice chairs in the room trying to ignore the fact that he began to develop a nervous twitch. The uneasy silence that had fallen over the room had finally gotten to him and Kaiba was close to demanding answers with the aide of physical violence. Twenty minutes after Yugi had left in her daze, a polite young man in a blue polo shirt and black dress pants entered the room and caused everyone to jump. "Kaiba-sama, you will be dueling Ishtar Isis in ten minutes." He stated as Kaiba got to his feet.

"Thank you." He told the man as he bowed and left the room, closing the door as he went. "Relative of yours?" he asked a still stunned Malik, who was sitting on the edge of the couch with his head in his hands and a nervous dark haired woman, who introduced herself as Motou Youko, sitting beside him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Yes… no… I don't know." He stated with a whimper, hands sliding past his temples into his hair. "Don't underestimate her, she's a vicious bitch that will take you for everything and she will cheat."

"Cheat." Jonouchi deadpanned from his position on the floor sitting across from Ryou, who was twitching at any sound.

"Trust me, she has a means to do so that will not allow her to get caught." He mumbled as Kaiba sighed and left the room, Jonouchi and Ryou followed as Yami waited till the door clicked shut to move towards the couch where Malik and Youko sat. On his way he shoved the chair Kaiba had been sitting in to be in front of them, so that when he sat down he could comfortably look Malik in the eye instead of standing and looking down on the blonde.

"What do you want?" Malik groaned as Yami sat back and crossed his legs, arms resting on the arms of the chair.

"How long has Ishtar-san been exposed to the Shadow Realms and the dangerous spirit in the Tauk?" he asked as Malik's snapped up so that he could stare at Yami in a mix of fear and hope. Youko went to say something, but Yami brought a hand up to halt her statement. "I need to know because if a Shadow Game is called it will not be the typical one that mimics the Duel Monster game with its cards and boards. It will be a true blue duel to see who lives and who dies and I will not go in blind when I know what I will lose with such brash decisions." He stated as Malik bit his lip and was weighing his options, but than he let out a small sound of pain and brought his hands up to his temples.

"Malik?" Youko asked in a worried tone as she dropped her hands to rest in her lap, watching as her blonde son trembled for a few minutes before calming down. Both heard Malik's deep, panting breaths before he sat back on the couch and let his hands drop like weights to his sides.

"If I had known I would have dealt with her before this began." A deeper, more masculine voice stated in a weary tone as Yami stiffened. He recognized that tone! Youko was on her feet and staring at the blonde with fear and shock. "I will tell you everything I have gleaned from Malik's memories, my Pharaoh, everything to make sure she doesn't suffer again for my moment of weakness."

"Thank you, _Amon_." Yami stated as 'Malik' sat up a bit, maneuvering his body so that he was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and hands hanging between his legs. His eyes were a deeper violet and a bit more sunken as shown by the dark shadows that lined his eyes like a raccoons, the only indication that something was wrong.

* * *

Five minutes later Kaiba was standing on the arena, clad in his usual button white dress shirt and dark blue slacks, facing off against a smug looking Ishtar Isis, in her typical white dress. The judges were ready as Mai gave them a run down of the basic rules, as a reminder, and than directed them to their place at the lines drawn on the ground twenty feet from each other. "Now make this a nice, clean duel. This will be broadcast to the nation and you are both mature young people. Since Kaiba is on the left hand of the bracket, he has the first move." Mai added as she nodded to the camera men, who turned the cameras on. "I call this duel to begin!" Mai declared as she turned away from the two duelist and made her way to stand by Yugi, who was sitting against the wall opposite of the judges in a folding chair looking rather bored with a stoic Rishid to her right.

"Are you ready to accept the inevitable, Kaiba-san?" Isis asked with a smile while drawing five cards, like Kaiba did only he looked a bit bored with her question.

"That you will lose this duel? Yes." He drawled out as the Egyptian young woman scowled at his answer. "Beyond that, the answer would most likely be no." he added drawing a sixth card and looking over his hand with a critical eye.

"You do know that you will be needing the other two god cards to defeat him." Isis stated raising her chin a bit with a smirk, as if she had landed a blow to his ego.

"Him who?" he asked, playing dumb, as her eyes flashed with annoyance at his question but she did not raise to his bait. Internally she was seething that this boy dared to mock her predictions! The Millennium Tauk was her key to gaining everything she ever wanted, especially possessing the power and spirit of Motou Yugi and keeping her safe and away from these fools.

Isis relaxed a bit as the power of the Tauk curled around her mind and soul, the voice of Nepha cooing in her ear that she would win. She could see all of Kaiba's cards and knew that he would play Vorse Raider in attack-mode, which Kaiba annoucned a moment later as the gruesome beast-warrior with an attack 1900 and defense 1200. Than he would put down a Monster Reborn, which he did so, and than finished his turn. All was fair in love and war, she thought with a sadistic smirk, while drawing a card. No words needed to be exchanged at this point, they had nothing to say to each other till the end when she would prove the power of the Tauk.

She was about to close her eyes, to add to the effect of her power, but Nepha established her control and forcefully kept her eyes open. **_No drama and take him seriously you fool! _**Nepha snarled as Isis winced in pain, feeling the fingers of the insane spirit digging into the back of her neck. **_My power is not perfect and he has defeated the Tauk before, he is the one that ripped me from my body and made me suffer!_**The spirit howled as Isis cringed and put the card she drew face-down in defense mode and than pulled another card from her hand and slid it into one of the trap/spell/magic card slots. "I activate Dragged Down into the Grave." Isis proudly stated, noting that Kaiba was unimpressed by her statement. "Which means we show each other our hands, chose a card and discard that card to the graveyard." She elaborated as two judges got to their feet and approached both duelers, one taking the cards in Kaiba's hands and another taking Isis's cards and they began to cross the field to show the opponents. "I discard your Polymerization." She announced as the man with Kaiba's hand froze, obviously a bit shocked as he looked through the cards and pulled that one out and turned to head back to Kaiba.

"Your really full of your so-called… psychic ability, aren't you?" Kaiba dryly asked as he looked over her cards, hiding his annoyance beneath his own serious mask. Isis scowled at the veiled skeptical tone he had with the last part of his question, she would not be mocked by this fool! "Discard her Monster Reborn." He told the man as the cards were returned to their owners with the chosen cards put into the card graveyard.

"I can see the future and past, Kaiba-san, and it is no trick that you should spit out as you did." Isis sneered, motioning for the end of his turn, while Kaiba quirked an eyebrow and drew a card to begin his next turn.

"A trick that will be your downfall, it takes skill to defeat someone— be it in battle, in games, or in debates." Kaiba stated in a lecturing tone whil tucking the card into his hand, causing Isis to grit her teeth in annoyance at his attitude. Nepha tightened her grip on Isis, reminding the young woman that losing her temper was not best right now. She was confident with what the future revealed to her, that Kaiba would not put another card down and that she would win.

If only she and Nepha understood the true power of the Tauk.

* * *

Back in the waiting room, at the same time the duel began, Youko had taken to standing by the Waiting Room door while the two spoke. Yami ignored her presence, since he had pressing matters to address, and Amon, the yami that was possessing the new owner of the Millennium Rod— Malik. "From Malik's memories, the answer to both is since before he can remember." Amon carefully stated, looking uneasy in the body he was using. "From what I can remember, from the first touch of someone that was not the guardian of the items, at a young age. She and her father masterminded the stealing of all the Millennium Items from the weakened guardian."

"Can she be saved?" Youko asked as both glanced at her in surprise, making her shiver under their gaze.

"No." Amon stated in a surprisingly strong tone.

"What did you mean when you said that you should have 'dealt with her before?'" Yami asked as the two turned their attentions back to one another.

"When she used the Millennium Rod I should have fought harder, but I couldn't. My weakened state next to her, I could not." Amon stated as he bowed his head. "Again, I failed to bring her into check… AGAIN!" he shouted flopping backwards, eyes squeezed shut.

"What do you blame yourself for?" Yami asked with a frown as Malik kept his eyes shut and his hands on his own knees.

"It was my fault that _she _and your children died! I should have knocked her out when I had the chance, but she told me she had no ill intentions towards _her_." The blonde stated as tears began to leak from the corners of his eyes. "Nepha was my sister, she was family, why would she lie to me? How naïve I was, how foolish." He lamented as Yami frowned.

"How do you mean?" he asked as Amon's eyes snapped open and he stared at the man.

"Your second-wife, my elder sister. Nepha did not give you an heir to cement her position so your mother set up a second marriage to my elder sister." He explained as Yami leaned forward, hands gripping the arms of the chair to the point where his knuckles were white. "Why don't you remember? You were both so in love, by Ra you pretty much fainted when the High Priest Seth officially announced that she was blessed with your children!"

Yami was stunned by this answer, especially when he felt a cold hand around his heart. Was his second-wife the key to the recovery of those memories that he could not remember? "I have no idea why I don't remember! Yami snapped as he got to his feet, causing Amon to crane his head to stare up into blazing red eyes. "I wish I knew why certain parts of my memories are broken, are scattered." He added as Amon flinched at that angry tone. "What I am concerned with, right now, is if Isis has a weakness?" Yami asked as Amon was silent, either wallowing in the fact he was blaming himself for whatever happened or truly thinking about the question.

"She goes with what works for her one ends, she forgets that nothing is set in stone." He stated seriously as Yami frowned. "Both her and Nepha think that they can control the power and that what they see _will _happen. Looking into the past is one thing, but looking into the future is a fools wish." With that Yami watched as Amon gradually faded into the background of Malik's mind and the blonde teen slumped back against the couch, asleep from the exhaustion of having the darker spirit forcibly take control of his body.

* * *

Back with the duelers, Kaiba smugly put down a card face down in defense mode. "Vorse Raider attack her face down card." He stated as the beast-warrior darted forward and cut the face-down car don her side of the field in half. It was than he put down two magic/trap cards and ended his turn with a graceful wave her way, but his smug grin did not fade.

"You are so easy to predict." Isis stated drawing a card and than tapped into the Tauk's power to see what she should do. A moment later she tucked the card into her hand and than pulled another one and put it down on the duel disc face-up in attack mode.

**_Start laying down the foundations for dealing with the God Obelisk._**Nepha demanded as Isis agreed with this, it would be in Kaiba's nature to play such a card. From what she had seen he would be close to summoning said Egyptian God and if she wanted to win she would have to destroy that chance…

"I play Mudora is attack mode." She announced as a Egyptian looking warrior appeared on the field— Mudora, attack 1500, defense 1800. "Now I equip him with the Cestus of Dagla, increasing his attack by 500." She added as Mudora gained odd weapons in his hands.

"I will now take this chance to activate my face down trap card, the Crush Card and tribute my face down Castle of Dark Illusions." Kaiba announced as Isis frowned. She knew he had that card face down, but she did not see him using it now! He did not use that for another two turns when he used it after using the Shrink spell card! "Destroying your Mudora, any cards with 1500 attack or more in your hand and for the next three turns." He explained as a judge got up and moved to stand by her in order to make sure that she upheld the card effect. Now she was left wide open for an attack! Isis flinched as Nepha made her displeasure known, but that did not stop her from pulling the spell card Swords of Revealing Light from her hand and activated it. Hopefully that would shield her for the three turns she had no chance of protecting her life points.

"I have seen this and I do not fear losing to you because I will not lose." Isis told Kaiba as he drew a card and shrugged at her statement and put that card face down on the field and ended his turn without a word. The next few turns passed the same, only Isis put down two cards in defense mode and one magic card.

"Having troubles?" Kaiba asked as the Swords of Revealing Light finished as did the discarding of all cards that had an attack above 1500 points. The judge left for his seat as she smiled at him, but he did not bite the bait she was dangling in front of him. He knew that inwardly she was annoyed because she was not controlling this duel how she wished. It was not hard to see that since her dark eyes betrayed her.

"I am fine." She stated drawing a card and than putting that face card into the side of the duel disc, denoting that it was a magic/spell/trap card. "I am doing this because I lost Yugi once already and I will not lose her a second time." She stated confidently while ending her turn as Kaiba's eyes narrowed.

"Lost Yugi?" he echoed as she smiled.

"I had her in my grasp, even if she did not want to be there but that can be fixed in time. You and that fool that claims he loves her have poisoned her mind against me again." She accused as Kaiba looked a bit angry at this statement, but he quickly covered his glare and curl of his lips with a cold mask. Unfortunately Isis had pushed the wrong buttons and Kaiba was not going to take her down, hard, and than corner Yugi about what she meant. Isis than finished her turn as Kaiba drew a card. "I do, after all, have the means to take down that Egyptian God card I gave you and therefore I will win this duel."

Kaiba did not like many things, at the top of that list was arrogant fools. With that final statement Isis had gone straight to the top of the list of people that he would ruin. First, she had implied that she had done something to Yugi, he would assume that Isis had kidnapped her from the phrase 'did not want to be there.' Second, she was arrogant enough to believe that just because she could supposedly 'see the future she would win this duel! If she really wanted to predict the future she would have learned his strategy and how to defeat it and not assume that she would be told by whatever voices she was hearing. Let her assume she could see the future, it would only make his victory sweeter.

"I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy your face down spell or trap card." He stated and watched Isis pale drastically as her card was destroyed, leaving Kaiba with his Monster Reborn face down behind his two summoned creatures. "Now I tribute both monsters and summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in attack mode." He stated putting down his dragon card after moving the two to the graveyard.

"No." Isis stated in shock, hands trembling as Kaiba felt like doing a victory jig but restrained that urge. He was Kaiba Seto, the cool and cold CEO of KaibaCorp, and he would not lower himself to such a distasteful act in public. When he was alone he would do so just to get it out of his system, but only when he was not in public.

"Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack her first face-down card." He stated proudly as the dragon gathered a white blast in its mouth and released it. The card was destroyed, but it did not immediately go to the card graveyard. Instead it flipped up to show an old jar with one wide eye and a disturbing smile at the top.

"My Morphing Jar, which means we both discard and redraw our hands." Isis stated as both did so just as Kaiba ended his turn and she drew her sixth card. Nepha was definatley angry with Isis, as well as the fact that Kaiba was breaking her predictions just like the High Priest had done! History was repeating and it was not an event they both wanted to be repeated, they would not get the chance to duel with the Pharaoh. No matter the story they had spun the day they told Kaiba about the tablet that had the Pharaoh and the High Priest facing off, they had wanted to break the Pharaoh.

Isis shivered as she tucked the card into her hand and passed her turn. They still had a good chance that the Pharaoh and the High Priest to face off, that Saitou Yami and Kaiba Seto, would duel in the end. Than they could attack the Pharaoh after he was defeated, when he was at his weakest, and finally be done with him. She came back to reality as Kaiba drew a card and than had his Blue-Eyes White Dragon attack her second face down card, which revealed a second Morphing Jar. They discarded their hands again and redrew, Kaiba looking a bit sour because he did not put down another monster in attack mode, and it was Isis's turn again.

She drew a card and immediately played it without looking, her expression was clearly like a cat that was rather pleased with itself. "I play Exchange of Spirits and willingly play the 1000 life points to activate it." She announced as the card appeared on the field in front of her as her life points went from 5000 to 4000. "Switching the card graveyard with the deck." The switch was made, right down to the reshuffling of the new 'deck.' The move was good for her, since she had more cards than Kaiba did and he would run out first if she managed to remove the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. She expected Kaiba to look stricken by this move, looked pressured or pressed because he would lose.

No, if anything he looked positively giddy. Isis than put a card face-up in attack mode at her defense, which was a bad move with a dragon that had 3000 attack points on the other side of the field, and ended her turn. On the field a creature with a metal head and a long purple cloak appeared— Zolga, 1700 attack and 1200 defense. Isis did not think about her mistake because she was still seething because her opponent was not reacting how he should. He should have summoned Oblesik by now and he had yet to even make a move to do so! All of her predictions were worthless without that key move, but now he was open to do so… he will not do so next turn, so she would have a chance to regain her weapon against the God Card.

Kaiba would have hugged Isis if he did not want to take a scalding hot bath afterwards. She had handed him the end game of this duel on a silver platter with all the right garnishes! If she could see into the future she would have remembered the first magic/trap/spell card he had put down as Monster Reborn and her Exchange of Spirit card just gave him free range over everything in the card graveyards, which was most of his deck now.

Drawing a card, Kaiba played that card face-up in attack mode. On the field a rather disturbing looking reptile called Des Feral Imp (attack 1600, 1800 defense) appeared by his Blue-Eyes-White Dragon. "Now I activate my Monster Reborn." He added as his only magic/trap/spell card flipped up and she looked pleased with his decision to do so. "I chose to summon another Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my graveyard." He announced as her pleased expression dropped and she looekd ready to faint. "In attack mode." He added as an after thought as the second dragon appeared on the field by the Des Feral Imp.

"This is not right!" Isis suddenly shouted as he lifted his chin a bit in defiance.

"Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack her Zolga." He ordered as the first dragon powered up an attack in its mouth and released it, destroying the fairy creature and dealing 1300 points in damage to Isis's lifepoints— taking her from 5000 to 3700. "Des Feral Imp, direct attack." The imp darted forward and slashed her as she flinched, her 3700 life points taken down to 2100. "To end this, Blue-Eyes White Dragon direct attack!" he bellowed and threw his hand out as the second dragon powered up its attack and released it on her, taking her remaining points out as she collapsed to her knees.

The duel was a buzz kill because she had left herself open and made novice mistakes, if anything Kaiba had the urge to drag Yugi off and have her duel him just to get the bad taste from his mouth. The other reason to drag his friend off and do so was so he could interrogate her, obviously things had happened while he was out dueling and he did not like being left in the dark like he had been. "Why didn't you use the Egyptian God card, I thought you wanted power!" Isis hissed out as she stared up at him

"You gave me a supposedly all-powerful card to duel with in this tournament after feeding me some story that I am destined to duel someone and showing me a tablet with an image of said card?" he asked as she glared at him. "An ancient tablet with a modern card on it makes no sense, especially if it is a god."

"Do you mock my beliefs?" she hissed out as Kaiba snorted, deactivating his duel disc as the judges called the duel to an official end.

"I question the source of your artifact, the validity of said artifact, and your interpretation of said information." He stated, but she still looked angry. "To your question, I don't need a God card so I didn't keep it." With that he turned and made his way back towards the waiting room, leaving an angry woman on the floor vowing to make Kaiba suffer after he defeated the Pharaoh.

* * *

As the duel ended, Mai glanced at Yugi to see her reaction and seen that she had fallen asleep in the middle of the duel. "Well, that answers that question." Mai dryly remarked as she got to her feet, stretching her arms above her head.

"Kujaku-san!" one of the workers shouted as he ran up to her. "Motou…" he trailed off as the blonde woman clapped a hand on his shoulder and turned him away from the sleeping teen.

"Yugi-chan is resting, I'll take care of things from here." She stated sweetly as he nodded. "What happened?"

"The anonymous dueler backed out of the tournament due to family issues, so Ishtar Malik automatically wins to face Kaiba Seto. The next duel would be Bakura Ryou versus Satou Yami." He told her while showing her the clipboard he held in his hands.

"Great." She deadpanned and than sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yugi's heading towards a burn out and I have yet to bully her into doing something for me, Kaiba has a buzz kill duel with a woman that has issues, some jackass forfeits, what else can go wrong?"

* * *

**A/N: **This was drug out into the open kicking and screaming and written on Saturday through now. A few ideas came from a question my beta, S2Teennovelist, asked while reading… the question of if Kaiba knew about what Isis did to Yugi. To the duel— Dragged into the Grave only discards one card (at least that is what my research kicked up) and the Crush Card requires a sacrifice of a low level Dark card. The next chapters will be posted either on Saturday or by Monday, since duels are pains for me.


	25. PRELUDE TO THE END

**Q. PRELUDE TO THE END**

_I never really feel quite right  
__I don't know why, all I know is there's something wrong  
__Every time I look at you, you seem so alive  
__Tell me how do you do it, walk me through it_

_I'm following every footstep  
__But all I want is for you to SHINE  
__Shine down on me  
__Shine on this life that's burning out_

_SHINE (shine it on to me)  
__Shine down on me (I wanna feel it)  
__Shine on this life that's burning out_

_- Shine,_ending song to the original Hellsing Anime

* * *

The forfeit worked out for Malik, considering the fact that he was still asleep in the waiting room with Youko watching over him, while Yami left to deal with his and Ryou's duel. With all the formalities out of the way and when they started the duel was typical, only there was no witty banter or anything. The only highlight of the duel was when Mai let in Jonouchi Shizuka, her eyes still bandaged, and Ryuuji Otogi, who was looking nervous as he drifted away from the group and made a beeline for Yugi.

Yugi had shifted from being slumped in her chair against the wall to leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. She had adopted this look when Rishid had left to prepare for his duel, due to the fact that her mind had caught up with her. As things really began to settle in her mind, as she began to really think about everything that happened, Yugi realized that the sudden calm she had felt at the beginning of the finals was more her being numb than anything. All she wanted to do was cry, about what she wasn't sure of yet, and curl up in bed with some hot green tea with more sugar stirred into the liquid than should be possible. She swore that after this, since the bed would happen, she was going to take a week to avoid people and just stay in with Yami. "There is no place like home." Yugi whispered to herself, mentally laughing at how appropriate that phrase was for this situation.

"You look stressed." Otogi stated as he sat down by her but she did not pay him any mind.

"No offense intended, Otogi-san, but I don't like you enough to tell you why." Yugi stated as he watched the two duelists shake hands. While her tone was a bit hostile, Otogi did not feel the typical anger at being dismissed so easily rising in his chest. He let it go, since it was true. Yugi sighed and got to her feet, wincing as she stretched something that was obviously stiff, and just in time to greet a smiling Jonouchi Shizuka.

"I never imagined you to look like this, Yugi-chan!" Shizuka cheerfully stated as she suddenly hugged Yugi. "I wanted to thank you for lending me your computer so that I could listen to Ka-chan's duels." She added and pulled away as Yugi blinked a few times.

"Ka-chan?" both her and Otogi echoed as the auburn haired girl giggled, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth while her brown eyes reflected her amusement to them.

"That is my nickname for Katsuya." She answered as both Yugi and Otogi decided to drop the issue for now, until Jonouchi did something stupid that warranted such embarrassment.

"Okay." Yugi stated as Shizuka tilted her head to the side with a look of confusion on her face. "Sorry to seem a bit rude, but I need to go talk to Kaiba about something while I can." With that Yugi retreated towards the waiting room as they watched her leave.

"That was odd." Shizuka commented as Otogi shrugged. "She didn't sound that stressed before."

"I know, but it would be best not to press her." Otogi told his future girlfriend as she frowned and turned to him. "Motou-san doesn't trust many people with her private life, I have found, and if she is looking for Kaiba-san that means she is going to resolve part of this issue on her own." Shizuka accepted his words, but only because she knew that she could not do much for Yugi at the present time.

Malik was awake when Kaiba entered the waiting room, obviously a bit disturbed by something that happened in his duel with Isis. Youko had gotten to her feet when he entered the room, having jumped at the sudden entrance while Malik lazily got to his feet and stretched his arms up above his head. "What did your sister do to her?" he demanded with a glare as the blonde flinched at the tone.

"You could just ask me." Yugi stated from the doorway as Kaiba turned to face her.

"I think it would be wise to leave you two to discuss this." Malik stated as he pushed Youko towards the door, Yugi taking the extra three steps in and towards the side as they walked past her. "Good luck." The blonde whispered as he passed Yugi, who moved over and closed the door while Kaiba crossed his arms and looked like a father ready to reprimand his daughter for doing something stupid.

In some ways, that was not far from the truth.

"What have you kept from me?" Kaiba asked as Yugi sighed, shoulders sagging a bit.

"What do you want to know?" she asked as he tapped his foot while thinking of his first question.

"What did Isis mean when she said you were in her grasp?" he asked as Yugi looked uneasy. Kaiba had never seen his long time friend and adopted-sister look so edgy before.

"She kidnapped me in the middle of Battle City." Yugi stated, deciding that it would not be good to dance around the subject or avoid it. Eventually she would have to come to terms with it, eventually she would break more than she did that night… and right now she would not bury it. Her instincts were telling her not too.

"She what?!" he grit out from between his teeth as he let his arms drop to his sides while he crossed the distance between him and Yugi. She took a step back as he rested his hands on her shoulders and kept her from backing farther from him. "Yugi." He pressed out as she looked away.

"I was talking with Bakura-san out in the crowds, in one of the main areas, when someone ambushed us. I threw him my bag and they drug me kicking into the alley, knocked me out, and I woke up in a room with Ishtar-san." Yugi stated, leaving out a good many facts. Kaiba looked a bit shaken by just knowing that much. "She's damned creepy with her obsession."

"She said something about 'that fool that claims he loves her' during the duel, I know you heard it." Kaiba stated, as she looked him in the eye. "Your relationship with Saitou-san is more, isn't it? It is more than the typical boyfriend-girlfriend stage that you both claimed during 'The Legendary Heroes' debatable."

"It is." She admitted as he waited for her to continue. "We are actually engaged."

"Engaged?" the brunette echoed as she nodded and he let go of her shoulders and fell back in a dead faint.

* * *

As Jonouchi Katsuya and Ishtar Rishid began their duel, the last of the semi-finals, a confrontation was going on between Bakura Ryou and Satou Yami. Both boys bad taken to standing in front of the entrance doors to the arena, far enough from everyone that was involved in the duels so their conversation would be as private as they could get without entering the waiting room where Kaiba had gone. Also they could see practically everyone, especially the fuming Isis, from their position. "Can you feel it?" Ryou asked Yami, who crossed his arms and leaned against the metal divider between the glass doors.

"Have you been watching too many horror movies or are you mocking someone?" Yami drawled out as Ryou shivered, which drew Yami's attention to him. In a split second Ryou's hair became spikier, giving him a slight more of a devious look, and his eyes were now as gray as an overcast day instead of dark brown. "I see you have finally gained enough strength to make such a change drastic." Yami remarked as 'Ryou' snorted and stretched his arms above his head.

"Not all of us were blessed with such power, _Pharaoh_." A voice that was not Ryou's calm tone answered with a smirk. Yami recognized the heavily accented tone that now emerged from Ryou's mouth, he had almost missed it despite his trouble with his memories. "Amon will have to gather his power like I did, with patience. It is not like you, or any of those in the Shadow Realms, can help us."

"It is unfortunate that you haven't lost your sharp tongue in your imprisonment." Yami dryly returned as his devious companion took to inspecting his nails in his boredom. "Am I right in calling it an 'imprisonment,' Thief King Zuka"

"Yes, you are right… but it was by choice." Zuka sneered and turned his attention to the duel. "So, your mind was proven to be empty. Is this true?" he drawled out as Yami glared.

"My mind is not empty, but I do not appreciate my memories being tampered with. It is annoying to have everyone around you know yet they keep you out of the loop." Yami hissed out from between his teeth as Zuka flinched at the anger behind his words. "I do not appreciate Yugi being brought into this screwy circus!"

"You have adapted well to this new world, already using their phrases." Zuka commented, in hopes of deflecting the issue but when he met Yami's crimson eyes he knew it was too much to hope for. "It was for your own good after what happened to her, we were hoping that you would have recovered if you did not remember. You loved her too much for our magic to give you a chance at happiness, your magic would not let you forget and it was our stupidity that we tried without researching." He answered and turned to face the now glaring Yami, whose fingers were twitching. Zuka was not stupid enough to think that the other would not crush his mind in public, but he had no way of getting out of this.

"What happened?" Yami pressed as the Thief King, who was possessing Ryou, looked resigned.

"Why do you want to remember?" Zuka asked as Yami blinked twice, trying to figure out what he was trying to get at.

* * *

During this conversation, Yugi was crouched by Kaiba and lightly slapping his face to get him awake. It would not look good if she exited the waiting room and asked for smelling salts or anything to wake up their employer, who had fainted. The only plus of the situation was that she would tease Kaiba about this incident for a long time. "Maram, you wouldn't happen to have a spell to wake him up, would you?" she asked in a rather exasperated tone as the red Dark Magician appeared behind her.

"To wake _him _up?" he asked eagerly while bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, causing Yugi to frown. She had missed the emphasis the Magician had put on the word 'him' because if she had caught it she may have asked him why he was so eager. "Of course I do!" he jovially added in answer and snapped his fingers and a small lightning bolt to hit the brunette and he sat straight up for the culprit but seen no one since Maram faded into the background again, just to be safe.

"What the hell?" Kaiba demanded as Yugi rested her elbows on her knees with a Cheshire cat grin on her face.

"You fainted when I told you that I'm engaged to Yami." She stated as he twitched at the mention of her fiancée's name.

"I'll kill him." Kaiba bluntly stated as he went to get up from the floor, but all she did was reach out and lay a hand on his shoulder. "How do you know him? Both of you have been so damned secretive, even during 'Legendary Heroes!' I have no background on him, no origins, no nothing and yet you trust him enough to got this far without suspicion!" By this point in his rant Kaiba was shouting, but Yugi did not look insulted or even phased by his questions. She was still calm and staring at him with an expression that was best described as thoughtfulness.

"Do you really want the truth?" she asked in a level tone as Kaiba nodded, crossing his arms over his chest and waiting for her to continue. "Do you believe in magic?"

"Of course not!" he vehemently stated as her eyebrows shot up, but she just laughed and fell backwards so she was sitting on her butt and not on her toes. "What's so funny about that?" he growled with a glare as she just laughed harder.

"That would have been my answer, up till I received this golden puzzle from Grandpa." She replied with a smile, wrapping her arms around her knees as Kaiba just patiently listened to her. "Before Duelist Kingdom, that is. When I completed the puzzle I found myself face-to-face with this shadow of a man with red eyes, who scared me at first. I later found out, during Duelist Kingdom, that his name was Atemu and he was from Egypt… well, ancient Egypt."

"Wait a minute, a man from ancient Egypt lived in the puzzle?" Kaiba asked with a look that clearly said he did not believe what she was saying. He reached out and pressed a hand to her forehead, now it was Yugi's turn to frown. "You don't have a fever, maybe you have hit your head one to many times or maybe this is a produce of what that bitch did to you." He stated as Yugi tilted her head to the side, still frowning.

"Kaiba… Seto, my old friend and now over-protective brother." She stated as she batted his hand away from her forehead while he waited for her to say something more. "I guess I'll just have to prove it to you."

* * *

"Why do I want to remember? I want to remember because obviously whatever is going on revolved around those memories, around this woman I cannot remember." Yami stated as he pushed away from the divider and let his arms fall to his sides, clenched into fists. "I want to know because I was married to that woman and because I can't remember I have this void in my emotions like my memories. I want to remember because if it affects my feelings for Yugi I want to at least know so I can warn her." He snarled and took a step towards Zuka, so that he was now standing face-to-face with him.

"What will you do with that knowledge?" Zuka bravely asked while trying to keep his body from trembling, which would tell Yami that he was still afraid of him. In this effort he made sure to keep his eyes locked with Yami's. It was dangerous waters he was treading now, especially on a topic they had all been sworn to never speak of even before the soul bindings.

"They are my memories." Yami growled as the white haired, possessed teen gulped.

"She was the apprentice to Shadi the Sorcerer of Darkness, the only female master magician in all the lands and the only white magician ever born. When I first met her she introduced herself as the Silent Magician." Zuka stated as he felt a hand near his throat, gathering up the material of his shirt. "After we came to live in the palace, since those with the Millennium Items had to stay together, your mother announced that your first marriage was annulled due to your wife being barren and that was a bad omen for the lands." He continued as Yami let go of his shirt, but still glared.

"And?" Yami pressed as Zuka fidgeted.

"She announced your marriage to the Silent Magician, whose former master accepted the agreement in the place of her father, and you were both married." He concluded with hands up as Yami drew back to where he had been leaning against the metal divider. "Your head priestess wanted your second wife because of her power and prestige, your first wife wanted her dead because she no longer had access to the title and wealth you had. From that the seeds of destruction had been sewn." Zuka quickly added as Yami was frowning.

"Why have you not told me her name?" he asked, causing their conversation to taper off for a few moments while Zuka thought about his answer. In the background they heard cheering from Shizuka, random movie quotes was Jonouchi, and calm commands from Rishid. It was obvious the duel was dead even and both were enjoying themselves, considering the occasional bantering.

"That is something you have to find out yourself." Zuka stated as he faded into the background of Ryou's mind and left a confused teenager facing a pensive Yami.

* * *

"How do you plan on doing that?" Kaiba asked with a skeptical look as she held up her arms.

"Nothing up my sleeves, no duel disc on my arm, and no technology whatsoever in the room." She stated, imitating the stereotype of a magician about to perform a trick. "Maram, do you think there is a way to make a believer of him?" she asked as the red Dark Magician appeared on Kaiba's other side with a calculating look on his face as he made a show of checking a shocked Kaiba over.

"Probably not, he'll dismiss me as a hallucination." he asked tilting his head to the side in question. "Which is heartbreaking for a magician of my status." He added pressing a hand over his heart and looking rather hurt.

"Don't mind him, he's been like this since we met." Yugi told Kaiba while reaching out to pat him on the head like a good pet of sorts, which succeeded in snapping him out of his shock. He twitched and stared at her.

"How did he appear? Is this a joke?" Kaiba asked as Yugi leaned forward and rested her chin on her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs again.

"No joke." Maram stated cheerfully, which disturbed Yugi because the Dark Magician always looked so serious and Maram had been so up to this point. "You can believe it if you want or you can ignore it, but it is hard to ignore magic when you are surrounded by people connected to it."

"What do you mean?" Kaiba demanded of the grinning Magician.

"Yugi is connected to this magic since she was born with it, Pharaoh Atemu was blessed with his own and he is also the guardian of the Shadow Realms, Bakura Ryou was born with magic as well but it was not awakened, Malik was born with it but he has not awakened it either, and finally there would be the two neither of you have met." He explained, ticking the names off on his fingers as Kaiba twitched again. "Ishtar Isis has magic, as well, but her magic was twisted and corrupted by her own perversions and that will be dealt with soon."

"What do you mean by that?" Yugi asked as Kaiba turned his attention back to her, obviously attempting to forget about the duel monster that had just appeared in the room.

"Speaking of Ishtars, what was going on earlier with the dazed expression?" Kaiba asked as Yugi looked a bit confused. "Before the duels, when Jono-kun and I arrived." He elaborated as Yugi's eyebrows shot up in surprise at hearing the pet name that Kaiba had given the blonde teen.

"Jono-kun?" she asked, causing Kaiba to blush in embarrassment.

"You are avoiding the question." Kaiba pointed out in a steady tone of voice, which was a surprise to him since he felt anything but steady about letting slip what he had began calling Jonouchi. While this went on Maram faded back into the shadows, obviously unneeded now that the conversation had moved away from magic. The Magician decided that he would have to cause troubles for Kaiba while Yugi was training in her magic, it was so much fun to annoy the serious teenager!

"That's why you were asked about a DNA test." Yugi stated as he waited for the rest of the answer. "That woman claims to be my mother, who is not dead, and she than claims that Malik is my brother, that I never knew about, and all of this was being hidden by Grandpa, who was working for Isis." There were a few moments of silence as Kaiba thought about that sentence.

"Are you living a soap opera?" he asked with a straight face as she snickered.

"I hope not, because if I am I'm becoming a nun just to cut it off at the knees." Yugi replied as he cracked a smile at that answer. All talk of magic was forgotten and Kaiba resolved to interrogate Satou Yami and see if the stories matched up and if they didn't he would make sure Yami's body could not be found.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry! I did not mean to have this be so late, but this deviated from my original plan. It was supposed to be chronicling the duel between Rishid and Jonouchi but, instead, this came out. A filler, yes, but a reviewer, Dark Reborn, pointed out that I did not introduce Kaiba to the legend of the puzzle and such... plus a bit of a past look as a build up to the next chapter.

An answer to your other question, Dark Reborn, the Anonymous Dueler was actually Grandpa.


	26. PUZZLE VERSUS TAUK

**R. PUZZLE VERSUS TAUK**

_So now you'll know after time has passed  
__You can never be sure you're always the best  
__'Cause I'm back from the shadows comin' after you  
__On the brightest day of your darkest hour__So now, watch as I rise to a whole new height  
__And our mad battle cry will be heard all night  
__  
You destroyed the future with your past  
__Forgot the lesson of the test  
__You never understood the blessed  
__Too bad today will be your last  
__  
So now, watch as I rise to a whole new height  
__And our mad battle cry will be heard all night_

_- Shadow Games_, from the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie OST

* * *

Yugi had left the waiting room before Kaiba, but no one asked what happened because Kaiba looked ready to kill someone. Before anything happened, Yugi had approached Mai and asked her to take Youko out shopping since things could be handled there. Mai was thankful to do something other than standing around and eagerly drug the older woman from the arena. This settled Yugi's nerves because now Youko, who was possibly her mother, was not in the line of fire when the situation broke down.

After that was done, she had than announced the beginning of the quarterfinals and the first match of Kaiba Seto versus Ishtar Malik. That duel had been intense, especially when it came down to who could bolster the power of their Egyptian God card quicker, and had drawn everyone but Isis to gather where Shizuka and Otogi were sitting. In the end Jonouchi and Shizuka were cheering loudly because Kaiba won while Otogi was blushing because Shizuka was hugging him near the end. He was lucky Jonouchi was too wrapped up in the duel to notice and Yugi had to hand it to Shizuka, she never knew the auburn haired girl had it in her to embarrass the flirty Otogi Ryuuji in public.

When Isis joined the group of spectators, it was after Yugi announced the second duel of the quarterfinals— Satou Yami versus Jonouchi Katsuya. If anything this duel was comical, only because Yami was balancing between making minor mistakes to favor Jonouchi and not being caught throwing the duel. Kaiba was standing to the other side of a rather ruffled Otogi while Shizuka continued her enthusiastic cheering, and the brunette looked half pleased with the fact that Jonouchi was winning and half annoyed that Yami was not trying as hard as he should. Ryou was snickering ever so often as he leaned against the wall while Malik looked confused, but Rishid just patted the blonde on the shoulder and told him to not worry about it.

When Jonouchi was announced as the winner, Yugi watched as Isis stalked off to the waiting room and Yami followed her. "She is not happy with the outcome." Malik told Yugi as everyone took a small break before the final duel between Jonouchi and Kaiba.

"Her perfect scenario, the one that tablet had, was broken." Yugi stated as he nodded and both watched as Shizuka launched herself at a grinning Jonouchi. The tri-color haired girl noted that Ryou had retreated to stand by the doors out of the arena again, but she could tell he was waiting for something to happen.

"Yami does not seem the type too…" Malik trailed off as Yugi chuckled.

"I know, but I think he has his reasons." She told the blonde, who sighed and plopped down in the seat by her with his arms crossed. "A lot on your mind?"

"I have been thinking about what she told us before this, trying to come to terms with the information." He admitted as she tilted her head to the left and regarded him through half-lidded eyes. Yugi knew the 'she' that he was talking about; she knew that what Youko had told them would have eventually come down to a conversation between her and Malik.

"Is it so bad to believe or hope that it is true?" she asked as he tilted his head back so that he was staring at the ceiling while Rishid moved away from them, obviously not wanting to hear the rest of the conversation while Otogi went to speak with Jonouchi about possibly dating his sister.

"No, but I don't want to have my hopes brought up that I am not a member of that damned family." He admitted, uncrossing his arms and bringing his hands up to cover his eyes. "I want her to be my real mother, she was the only person in that dark place that showed any measure of compassion. Your not a bad person and I wouldn't mind having a younger sister to torment." He admitted as Yugi groaned.

"Damn elder siblings!" she muttered and sat back, the same way he was only her hands were in her lap. Malik laughed at her statement because that meant she was not against the thought of him as her brother, which eased the pain he had been feeling from his anxiety. "If you don't want to go back, you and Youko can stay with me at the game shop since I can't trust Grandpa now. Could use a bit of help around the shop and it wouldn't be bad to have new faces in the usual fights."

"Fights?" he asked as he pulled his hands away from his eyes and let them hang at his side.

"Popcorn, pillow, questions about dinner, what to do… the typical stuff." Yugi answered as he started to laugh. It wouldn't be bad now that he knew he would not have to return to Egypt and to the cold underground home he had, it was odd that Yugi had accepted him without any more issue but he figured that was because she knew a fraction of what he had grown up with.

All they needed now was to stop Isis.

* * *

Isis entered the waiting room and fumed, looking ready to tear something a part with her hands. She spun around when she heard the door click shut and seen Yami standing by the door, his lips pursed together into a line as he stood straight and waited for her to make the first move. "It was foolish to provoke me as such, _Nepha_, especially with what you did to my Hikari." He stated coldly as Isis glared at him, dark eyes flashing with her anger and her hands curled into fists at her side.

"I should have ruled! That title was rightfully mine before your whore of a mother stepped in and ruined me and my reputation, not to mention my own home land!" the other shouted in a tone of voice that was not the usual calm, accented Japanese Isis attempted to keep. This voice was colored with madness, hate, jealousy, and arrogance and Yami remembered the voice all too well because it rang in his occasional nightmares, when he would hold his Hikari a bit tighter and reassure himself that she was no longer there.

He would reassure himself that his first-wife, Nepha the Princess of the Amazon Kingdom, was dead and would no longer darken his happiness. He had to face her without Yugi at his back, without the back up of those he trusted; he would face her alone… by his own decision. "My mother is… was a wise Queen and you would have never stacked up to her." Yami stated, lifting his chin a bit as he let pride color his words. "She did what she thought was best for our kingdom, for the people, and for me when she asked the Gods and Priests to annul our farce of a marriage."

"How dare you insult me, I loved you!" Nepha, while possessing Isis, shrieked as she darted forward and slapped Yami with an enraged look on her face. Yami let his face snap to the other side, but he did not look angry or even remotely concerned with her.

"You loved no one, you spoiled little girl." He stated and backhanded her this time, watching as she hit the ground in shock. Yami had wanted to do that for awhile now, he remembered having the urge to back hand her a few times while they were married but held his anger in check because he had believed that he loved her at one point. "You loved the riches, the fact that you were not a Princess but now the Queen. My people were unhappy and my land suffering beneath the curse you brought on us with our marriage." By this point she was holding her cheek and glaring at him.

Nepha did not like the fact that her former husband had changed this much, she had expected him to fall on his knees before her while begging her to take him back. Her sources, from Motou Sugoroku to a few of the Duel Monsters in the Shadow Realms, had told her that he had no memories of the past or that they were scattered. Obviously they were wrong if he remembered that much. "They were peasants and far below your noble status as the Pharaoh. You do not cater to them." She stated getting to her feet as he just glared at her.

"I was Pharaoh and the job of the Pharaoh is to bring prosperity and honor to our lands, to strike fear into the hearts of other lands by the sheer devotion our people have to our land!" he bellowed as dark power began to crackle around his right hand, which was clenched into a fist and held in front of him. "If I have no devotion to the people than they have no reason to defend our lands and than a revolution would have begun."

"And than put down by the Shadow Realms!" Nepha countered as he started to laugh, but the sound was cold and mocking more than anything.

"You have no idea how the Shadow Realms work, do you?" he asked as she ignored the question and pulled on the power of the Millennium Tauk and its connection to the Shadow Realms. The room turned into a familiar throne room with torches burning in their holders along the walls and Yami was now facing someone else. He seen Isis sitting in a chair with her head bowed, as if asleep, while a woman in a white linen wrap around skirt held up by a two inch wide gold belt with a white wrap top held together by gold trinkets stood before him. Her black hair was pulled back in immaculate braids tipped with gold; her dark eyes betrayed her madness. She held a sword in her left hand and a staff in her right and looked ready to kill him without a second thought.

"A duel, husband, if I win you submit to me and I take the body of your beloved Hikari." The woman, the true face of Nepha, sneered as Yami frowned. He did not want to gamble with Yugi's life because she was not his property, his betting chip, to put in.

"I will accept the first part of that, but I do not agree to the second." He told her as she cackled.

* * *

Yugi had announced the final duel, which was between Kaiba Seto and Jonouchi Katsuya, and moved to stand with Ryou by the doors to the arena. In the first rounds of the duel Malik had joined them, but that was only because he was nervous. "Do you think they are okay?" Ryou asked as Yugi frowned.

"Jonouchi is holding his own rather well, Kaiba looks shocked." She remarked as Malik nodded in agreement while Ryou slapped his forehead.

"I meant Yami and Isis, since they are in the same room without a third party." He dryly told them as both just turned their heads to stare at him for a moment. "That is creepy, quit staring at me!" the white haired teen whined as he brought his hand down from his forehead to cover his eyes. He did not realize that Yugi and Malik had the same, slightly creepy, blank stare when sarcasm came into play.

"Yami… Atemu… will be fine." Yugi stated confidently as they looked surprised. "He is strong, determined, and best of all he is not bound by what the public thinks." She pointed out, now the other two looked surprised by her statement.

"I hope he kicks her ass." Malik stated as he stared at the door of the waiting room from the corner of his eye.

"Should we help?" Ryou asked while biting his bottom lip in worry while Yugi was silent.

"It is not time for us to get involved, not yet." She muttered, but her tone of voice was different. Both boys turned their attention to her as she leaned back against the wall. "He's not ready to remember the pain." She whispered as a sad smile curled her lips and her eyes were half-lidded as if partially asleep.

* * *

Yami dodged Nepha's wild and clumsy sword thrusts and slices, still dressed in the attire he had donned that day. He was not sure how he wanted to deal with her, but that thought was brought to a halt when a ball of magic slammed into the ground between them and caused her to jump back to avoid injury. "Pharaoh Atemu, you may want to revert to old instincts to deal with this miscreant." A smooth, baritone voice stated as Yami glanced over his shoulder and seen a serious Maahad with his staff raised. "She made her decision and if you do not kill her, others will." He added as Yami sighed and nodded his acceptance of this fact.

"Than this is not the time for me to be Satou Yami." He muttered and pulled the Shadows around him and pushed his name and modern ideas to the back of his mind and embraced his past life. When the shadows faded he stood, not in his attire as the Pharaoh of Ancient Khemet, but in the intimidating black leather and buckles while holding the staff of the Sorcerer of Black Chaos. He was Pharaoh Atemu the Sorcerer of Black Chaos, blessed by the gods by the petitioning of his mother, and the second ranked Dark Magic user in the world.

"A little costume change will not change the fact that I have seen your defeat at my hands!" Nepha shrieked before she charged at him without a strategy or second thought of how to fight him, which was so like her. Atemu smirked and conjured up varying dark balls of magic and threw them at her, laughing when one hit her dead on and sent her flying backwards.

"You brought on this danger, _Nepha_, you forced me to do this." He stated in a mocking tone as she got to her feet, shaking as he advanced on her. "You angered so many with an action, is that why I cannot remember anything about my second-wife?" he asked as she growled.

"I killed her! I killed both her and your unborn children because she took my throne, my title as Queen!" she shouted getting to her feet, ignoring the fact that his magic attack had possibly cracked a few ribs. What was that to someone that technically could not die a second time? "You left her unprotected, Amon let me in because he was stupid enough to think I wanted to apologize to her, and I stabbed her!" Atemu froze in his tracks as something just broke in his mind.

* * *

**A/N:** Well, getting down to the end of this. By pure luck the update schedule is back on track... for now, at least.


	27. THE PHARAOH’S CHOSEN WIFE

**S. THE PHARAOH'S CHOSEN WIFE**

_The world seems not the same  
Though I know nothing has changed  
It's all my state of mind  
I can't leave it all behind  
I have to stand up to be stronger_

_Oh, this night is too long  
Have no strength to go on  
No more pain I'm floating away_

_Through the mist I see the face  
Of an angel, calls my name  
I remember you're the reason I have to stay_

- Pale_, by Within Temptation_

* * *

During the breaking of Atemu's mind by Nepha's poison words, another important event was taking place. This event concerned Yugi, who found herself laying on her back on warm stone staring up at a clear blue sky wondering what happened and why she was no longer in the arena. With a groan she sat up and screwed her eyes shut as her vision was swimming with black dots from the sudden movement, prompting her to press a hand to her head, since she now felt the beginning of a serious migraine. "Does the Shadow Realms have anything to do with this sudden twist?" Yugi asked herself as she looked around, only to find she was laying on a flat stone floor that was partially covered in sand with fallen columns and walls all around. This was not her soul room nor was it Atemu's, who she recalled was a labyrinth… "Why did I just call him Atemu?" she whispered to herself, suddenly finding it hard to call her fiancée 'Yami' without feeling like she was insulting him.

"You are calling him by his original name because you subconsciously know that it is not right to call him Yami." A calm, throaty voice answered causing Yugi to freeze. "I mean you no harm, Motou Yugi." The voice added as a reassurance as Yugi turned to her left and stared at a young woman in blue and white dress complete with white gloves and a pointed hat sitting on a piece of a downed column.

"Who are you?" Yugi asked with narrowed eyes as the woman reached up and calmly removed her white hat, letting her tri-color hair fall freely to her waist. The teenager was now staring at a calm young woman that had her eyes and the hair colors, but that is where the similarities ended. The young woman was obviously either indifferent to everything or was calm, that much the teenage girl could tell from the fact that all the woman did was smile at her much like a mother would her daughter or a matron would her female charge. It annoyed the hell out of Yugi.

"I am Heba the Silent Magician, second-wife to Pharaoh Atemu." Heba stated, her calm smile never once faltering, as Yugi frowned. She had never met someone that could keep that expression for so long and it was now unnerving her. "In some ways I could be seen as being your past self."

"What?" Yugi growled out, getting to her feet with an expression that clearly showed that she was unhappy with what she had been told. The teenager was not angry by the fact that she now knew that Atemu had been married twice, she knew enough about ancient Egyptian culture to know that it would have been naïve of her to believe he died without being married once in his prime. No, Yugi was angry and a bit shaken by Heba's admission that Yugi was her reincarnation. "He is in love with me because he subconsciously thinks I am you?" she asked as she moved to stand a foot in front of the sitting Magician, her words faltering a bit as she suddenly felt a phantom hand curl around her heart. It did her confidence little good to feel that she was in love with someone that believed she was a reincarnation of someone he deeply loved, it was something she did not want to happen.

"Lay your fears to rest, my protégé." Heba stated calmly as she sat her hat in her lap, her hands braced on the column piece she was sitting on so she could look up at Yugi. "I assure you that he fell in love with you for yourself and not anything dealing with me. My words were not interpreted well, but that is not your fault because I was being too vague."

"How do you know?" the teen asked through gritted teeth with her hands clinched into fists at her side, obviously not happy with Heba's assurances.

"I truly did die but my soul did not go back into the cycle of rebirth." The woman told Yugi, who's eyes widened in surprise. "You see, I sacrificed my soul to the Shadow Realms and let my magic free so that my children could live. I have no idea if my sacrifice worked or not, but because I gave up my soul for them I could not be reborn." She elaborated with a hint of a blush on her cheeks as she looked down at the ground.

"I still look like you and… wait a minute, if you could not go back into the cycle of rebirth and sacrificed your soul how are you here talking to me?" Yugi asked with a frown, but Heba still did not look up.

"I am here because you need to be educated in the ways of your newly awakened magical powers." Heba stated as she finally lifted her head to look a skeptical Yugi in the eye. "Back to your question of how I know, the shadows would not have allowed you to finish the Millennium Puzzle if you were not equal to its chosen. Before it was known that I was pregnant he tested me by disassembling the puzzle and asking me to reassemble it and when I did we both knew."

"Okay, tell me if I get anything wrong." Yugi stated as she let her fingers uncurl from their fists and crossed her arms over her chest and rested all her weight on her right foot. "Only your power has survived till this day and age and I was born to be the next Silent Magician, who is the equal to the Sorcerer of Black Chaos, and the Millennium Puzzle can indicate if a person is equal to Atemu."

"Correct." Heba stated as the teen was silent. "You are surprisingly calm about this situation."

"No use in pitching a fit, what is done is done." Yugi answered with a shrug as Heba felt a bit uneasy under the teen's gaze. "Why did you suddenly show up? After everything else that has happened in the last year, and from what you have told me, you should have arrived when I completed the puzzle."

"I did not make myself known because you magic had not been awakened till my demented younger sister put the Millennium Tauk around your throat and it forcibly destroyed the link you had to Atemu and forced your magic to become active." Heba answered as Yugi blinked a few times, obviously a bit surprised. "I did not feel the pull of my successor, another words you, till that happened and I was forced to reveal myself to you till the Shadow Realms forced me to act."

"You procrastinated, didn't you?" Yugi dryly asked as Heba blushed.

"Possibly, but my visit also has another motive. I would like to ask a favor of you, Motou Yugi." Heba stated, trying to divert focus on the fact that she had waited to the last possible minute, as the teenager tilted her head to the side in question. "I require your aide in dealing with my younger sister, who had tried to take your body during your kidnapping. You see, Nepha has gone unchecked for far too long and I fear, and she will attack Atemu's only weakness."

* * *

Both Ryou and Malik, who were sitting on either side of the passed out Yugi, did not like the eerie silence that fell over the arena. The Shadow Realms and leaked out of the waiting room and weaved an illusion around those that had no connection the Shadow Realms and than pulled the three teens into its depths. They had ended up sitting in a dark corridor on stones with their backs to a wall without any light, listening to the echo of weapons clashing and shouting. That had gone on for nearly twenty minutes, which meant when the shouting suddenly stopped they suddenly feared that the fight was over. There fears were pushed aside when they were suddenly zapped in the arm, Ryou in the left arm and Malik in his right, by something that reminded them of static electricity and that caused them to scramble away from the still passed out Yugi with confused looks. "What the hell was that?" Malik grumble as he rubbed his right arm.

"A shocking development." A voice drawled out as a Dark Magician clad in red attire appeared from thin air, causing both to jump to their feet and glare at him.

"Har, har… very puny Captain Obvious." Malik drawled out as he continued to rub the stinging spot on his arm while the Magician snorted. Malik was not new to the appearance of the duel monster, considering what Isis did with the ones she summoned, so he figured it would be best to just accept everything and claim hallucination later to be safe.

**"Maram, my darling child, your humor has gotten a bit more stale from the last I heard it."**A voice, familiar to the red Dark Magician, muttered as all three stared down at Yugi, who was now awake but her head was tilted back against the wall and her eyes half-lidded. **"You should stick to pranks, they were always your strong suit."**She pointed out as the red Dark Magician, now known as Maram, dropped his staff in shock. A moment later he was on his knees, straddling Yugi's knees, and hugging her as the other two boys just watched.

"That looks a bit dirty." Ryou stated as Malik slapped his forehead at that comment, not wanting that mental image in his head. To make up for that comment the white haired teen smiled and waved, even if Yugi could not see them. "Hello Not-Yugi." Ryou stated without missing a beat just as Zuka, the spirit of the Millennium Ring, suddenly took interest in what was going on. Maram quickly got off of Yugi and helped her to her feet and from the grin on his face he was pleased with the change of events. It was when Yugi stared Ryou in the eye, seemingly looking through the teen into the spirit of the Thief King. This made Zuka uneasy and Ryou was getting annoyed with the nervous feeling that Zuka was subconsciously passing on to him.

**"What happened after my death, Zuka?"**the newly dubbed 'Not-Yugi' asked with a frown as Ryou made a split second decision and pushed Zuka to take control of his body. He was not foolish enough to stand between a miffed looking Yugi, who was being possessed by someone who was clearly a bit too calm, and her obvious target. The teen just hoped that Not-Yugi did not destroy his body because Ryou liked living despite the issues brought on by the Millennium ring.

"We, as in Shadi and the rest of us, had the Pharaoh's memories sealed." Zuka answered as if it was nothing while Not-Yugi blinked a few times.

**"You sealed ****_my husband's _****memories?"**she asked and rounded on Zuka while Maram and Malik took a step back away from them. Malik was clueless and he could tell the spirit in his head was not waking up anytime soon to explain things to him while Maram remembered his Master's temper and the last person that angered her.

"We had to, Heba!" Zuka protested, about to let Ryou take over just so he did not have to face a now enraged Not-Yugi, now dubbed Heba, who probably had all of Yugi's memories to pull on. The transition he was about to start was abruptly halted when she reached out and grabbed his shoulder, sending a wave of her magic into his body. Zuka, since he was the one that was still in control, screwed his eyes shut as the Millennium Ring began to glow.

"Yugi… Heba… um, Not-Yugi!" Malik shouted a bit awkwardly because he had no idea how to address whoever was in Yugi's body. Whatever he was about to say was lost as the Millennium Ring than went dull and a taller man with olive skin fell backwards out of Ryou's body while the teen stumbled forward into Not-Yugi's arms.

"No roller coasters! Can't we go on the Ferris wheel, Papa?" Ryou slurred out, in English, and in a daze as the man on the floor was no better, only he was cursing rather colorfully in Egyptian.

"That's new." Maram muttered, referring more to the appearance of the man than Ryou's coherency, as he took a few steps and came to stand by Not-Yugi, who passed the dazed Ryou to him and turned her attention, and fury, on the man on the floor. He had spiky white hair with a scar over his left eye and wore white attire that was normally found in the desert from either one of the nomad tribes or because he traveled a good bit.

**"You ****_sealed _****my husband's ****_memories_****?" **Heba repeated, only her emphasis was on two different words and the man on the floor quickly got to his feet, standing at least four inches taller than Not-Yugi but he looked afraid of her. **"Zuka, whatever possessed that to take place?"**she than asked, shoulders slumping a bit as the man, Zuka, now looked a bit more nervous. He may have been the spirit of the Millennium Ring, a once infamous Thief King who was renowned through the lands for being cruel and merciless, but when facing magic users he was edgy which was why he never pressed the Pharaoh and Heba past their limits.

"Hope that he could cope without that balance and calmness you brought to him when you married, he was fragile and we did not have the ability to keep him together." He told her with his hands at his side and no sign of lying in his gray eyes. "We hoped that by sealing his memories of you we would have enough time to find a way to support him the way he needed." It was unspoken that it was also the support that they needed to survive Atemu's bouts of no control when his power was exactly what his title was— Black Chaos.

**"Seeing that Amon is in no shape to help out in this endeavor, and I don't have enough power to fight and fully restore him to a permanent body as I did you, that means you will be helping." **Heba told him as she turned and made for the waiting room, Zuka quickly falling into step with her. **"Maram, make sure they are not harmed and explain what you can if they ask questions. Zuka and I have some… unfinished business to tend to."** Heba told her once apprentice who grinned.

"Kick her ass, Mother Heba!" the red Magician cheered as she chuckled and they entered the thick of the battle.

"Grandma, I don't want to wear that sweater… it is itchy and causes me to break out in hives." Ryou stated as he hugged a suddenly nervous Maram.

* * *

"My heart." Atemu whispered while gripping his staff tighter, his leather gloves creaking a bit. His mind had finally snapped, releasing the magical binding on the memories that had been repressed for so long and now he felt betrayed, depressed, and angry. "You killed my balance, my light, my Heba! You destroyed so many lives because you were greedy." He growled as she charged at him again, but he was too angry to use magic. This time his staff clashed with her sword, only his attack had gained strength and forced her to stumble back with a grunt and drop the sword due to the pain that blossomed in her hand. "You brought those dark times on because you were _jealous_." At this she had the nerve to look smug about what he just brought to light.

"Why would I be jealous of any fool who could love you?" Nepha sneered as she brought her stinging hand up to grip the staff with both hands. "It is obvious no one loved you, considering what they did to you after her death! Should you be angry at me for bringing that to light or should you be angry at them for manipulating _you_?" she pointed out, mentally pleased with the fact that Atemu faltered and looked a bit pensive now. "They bound your memories when she died, they could have done more to ensure things were the same as in the past. I may not have loved you, but no one deserves that." She told him with false pity, but Atemu did not know that because he let her words sink into his mind.

Moments later Atemu gritted his teeth against what she was telling him and the fact she actually sounded sincere about what she was saying. He wanted to damn her soul for eternity for killing his balance, his chosen wife, but now he wasn't sure what he wanted to do. He hated the fact she knew where he was weakest, at his heart. He had always been insecure, despite his outward confidence, about trusting someone so completely to marry and have a family with that person. Nepha had been a choice that his sire, his despised father, had left behind for him before the man had died and his second-wife, Heba the Silent Magician, had been the decision of his concerned mother. With that thought his heart ached a bit more because in her twisted words began to make more sense to his troubled mind.

He now felt lost with those seeds of doubt sewn into his mind and heart, causing his control to slowly unravel as old insecurities began to cloud his thoughts. This, in turn, gave a smug Nepha a chance to land several attacks on him and it was lucky that none were fatal. He shoved the bottom of his staff into the ground and leaned on it as his opponent caught her second wind with a sadistic smile curling her lips, having retrieved her sword during his moments of distraction. Atemu wanted to knock that look off of her face, but he could not bring himself to do anything but dodge her slashes and occasionally bringing his own staff up to parry her sword but he did not block her staff she he was occupied with blocking the sword. He could not stop asking himself about the motives of his court, could not remember why Heba could not defend herself since she was a master magician, and he could not remember his feelings for her… only anger at her death.

* * *

Mahaad scowled as he watched the Pharaoh succumb to every spell caster's weakness— their insecurities. The first lesson that Mahaad had remembered from his own master, before be became the Dark Magician, was that he must always keep a level head and never let something totally consume him because if he lost himself to something than there was little to no chance of returning. He could only imagine what a spell caster of Atemu's power and title could do if he became consumed by those insecurities for. Gripping his staff a bit tighter, he was mentally debating if he could step in to the fray without being killed for interrupting a challenge issued to the Pharaoh. Times like this made him feel helpless because he should step in to defend his Pharaoh, but when a challenge was made the rules were stricter. He relaxed a bit when he realized one thing, if he fell to far he would have Maram drag Yugi in to the challenge to help the Pharaoh out.

As he was about to enter the fight, since Atemu was getting closer and closer to giving up, but paused when he heard two sets of footsteps approaching. He quickly turned around to see who would approach this battle, since there was only three others that the shadows would have spared from their illusions, but relaxed when he seen that one of the two was Yugi herself. "Praised be." The Dark Magician whispered as he lowered his staff and the duo stopped in front of him, allowing him to look them over. The sounds of a sword clashing with a staff echoed as Nepha and Atemu continued their dance, but it did nothing to break Mahaad from staring at the Thief King in surprise. "How did you gain that form again, Thief King?" he demanded as Yugi gave a small, serene smile.

**"I needed a second set of hands to help, Dark Magician Mahaad."** A familiar voice stated causing Mahaad to stand a bit straighter as he looked down into the wise eyes of someone that he knew was dead. **"Trust me, I have no dark motive for possessing Motou Yugi."**

"What do you want us to do, Silent Magician Heba?" the purple clad man asked as Zuka grinned.

**"Zuka will keep Isis busy when she returns to herself, since Nepha's control will be strained with our entrance into battle."** She stated as the Dark Magician nodded in agreement. **"The next part of the plan is delicate and we are hoping you do not mind pulling it off."**

"Of course not, I would be honored to help my Pharaoh in any way possible." He stated proudly as Zuka moved around the possessed Yugi and leaned against the stoic Magician.

"Great, now what you need to do is find the Millennium Tauk and keep it away from Nepha and Isis and everything they summon against you." Zuka explained in a rather flippant tone, waving a hand as he stated it while Mahaad twitched. "You'll do fine." He added pinching one of the man's cheeks, receiving a glare for his action.

**"It will cut their power in half to keep it from them, or so we believe going off of one theory that Zuka developed in his boredom."**The still possessed Yugi told the Magician, who nodded. **"Just be careful, Mahaad, I do not want to put you in more danger than usual."**

"I will be fine but you should worry about my Pharaoh, your younger sister's words has brought more trouble than what he had in the beginning." Mahaad pointed out as he pulled away from the grinning Zuka.

**"Before you go, Mahaad, can I borrow your staff? I don't think Yugi is suited for the one I had and she will need to forge her own medium."**A blushing Heba asked as Mahaad cracked a small smile and handed over his staff before disappearing into the shadows to do as he was asked. **"I hope he will be all right."**

"Probably." Zuka stated as she glared at him. "Well, shall we crash the party now?" he eagerly asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet with his hands clasped behind him while Yugi, who took brief control of her body, slapped her face at the childish picture the man made.

* * *

Atemu had not been paying attention to what was happening on the sidelines, since it is hard to observe everything while on your back trying to fend off death blows from a sword that was being welded by an angry ex-wife that had been bound in darkness for 5,000 years. His mind was working triple time through Nepha's twisted words, his movies to counter her, and just what his new memories meant. "She doesn't even care enough to help you out now, before you submit to me." Nepha grunted as she tried to force her sword downwards against his staff, which he was pushing up. "Isis, bing me that delightful dagger I had you hide in your attire." She sweetly called out over her shoulder as Isis got to her feet and pullied a dagger from the folds of her dress and approached the two.

"How?" he hissed out with a glare as Nepha grinned.

"It took some time to extract the blade from the Millennium Rod, but it will be well worth the effort." The insane woman told a frowning Atemu. "I will bind your pathetic soul to the dagger and destroy it and you, since you are worthless." She cooed with a smile that soon fell when Isis did not appear at her side. "ISIS!" she roared but did not break eye contact with Atemu.

"No!" they heard Isis shout as someone hit the ground shrieking in anger, which masked the sound of metal skittering across stone as if thrown away.

"Sorry, Nepha honey, but Isis is playing with me! Wait your turn." A familiar, mocking voice stated as Nepha growled and broke eye contact with Atemu to look over her shoulder to where a white haired and clad man was pinning Isis to the floor. He was sitting on her back and tying her wrists together despite her fighting and shrieks of anger, oblivious to her glare.

"How did you come back?" Nepha snarled as she put her full weight down on the sword and Atemu.

"That was my doing." Another voice growled out Nepha was knocked back and off of Atemu by someone welding the Dark Magician's staff. He crab walked backwards, keeping hold of his own staff, and seen Yugi standing with the staff in hand. "Now, you psychotic mistake, I'm going to make you regret everything."

"Your too weak to face me, _sister dear_." Nepha snarled as she got to her feet, arrogantly throwing her staff to the side and favoring her sword, while Yugi bared her teeth.

"My name is Motou Yugi and I only have a brother and his name is Malik, I have no biological sister." Yugi stated coldly as she moved to stand between Nepha and Atemu with the borrowed staff up. "I am a teenager that knows she cannot beat you alone, but I am doing this because I love Atemu and will not let you kill him."

"I will delight in ripping your soul to pieces and taking over your body!" Nepha snarled as she charged at Yugi, who stood her ground.

"Bring it on, psycho." Yugi growled as the battle continued, only now it was between Nepha and Yugi while Atemu watched in shock.

* * *

**A/N:** Has anyone figured out the insanity that is this site's documents, before uploading? Only thing that moves full lines and the format goes haywire. Anyways, at least two chapters left now (minimum of one and maximum of two, to be technical).


	28. THE NIGHTMARE ENDS

****

T. THE NIGHTMARE ENDS

_In the moonlight  
Carry on keep romancing  
Carry on carry on dancing  
In the moonlight  
Carry on keep romancing  
Carry on carry on dancing_

_Move. Closer. Passion. Stronger._

_There's a magic only two can tell  
In the dark night  
Ultraviolet is a wicked spell  
The stars and planets taking shape  
A stolen kiss has come too late_

- _Carry on Dancing, _by Savage Garden

* * *

Nepha's poisoned words still dominated Atemu's thoughts as he watched the older, psychotic spirit and teenager fight. He could hear Nepha's mocking and her cutting laughter as her sword impacted the staff Yugi welded while Yugi was silent. **"I seen that look before, Atemu, it was the same look you had when our formal engagement was announced by your mother days after the declaration of the formal divorce."** He heard a soft, calm voice state as a ghost stood before him, transparent, but he recognized the blue and white attire.

"Heba?" He whispered in a shocked tone that was an odd mix of anger and depression. "What is going on?" he demanded as the ghost of Heba cocked her head to the side in question, than her eyes widened as her mind filled into the blanks of his vague question.

**"Well, it looks like an angry teenage girl is fighting my psychotic little sister and winning. A pity Yugi wanted to fight this battle alone, but I respect her decision." **Heba told him as he glared at her for her honest, yet slightly sarcastic, answer but it was weak in comparison to the true glare he leveled at insolent nobles and peasants. The first Silent Magician seen that and repressed the urge to smile as her husband's attention turned to the fight, the fact that it was purely Yugi fighting for him finally settling in. **"Is that not the answer you were waiting for?"**

"No." he growled out and glared at her, but she stayed calm. "Let me be clear and blunt, why did her words hurt me so much?"

**"You have been in the darkness for so long that you forgot the ties you had to one another. It did not help that you could not remember who I was or anything else, so you had reason to be suspicious."** She answered; he did not look away from her while she held his gaze without flinching. **"Nepha prided herself on being able to control everything around her and bending people to her will, because she learned it from our Mother and how she ruled her own kingdom with an iron fist that made your sire look tame. We all have a weakness and, it so happened, she knew how to attack yours. She had too much time to plot her revenge, with five thousand years of nothing to do." **It was unspoken, between the former married couple, that it was also Nepha's hate of Atemu that drove her to try and destroy him.

"Does that mean she was right about everything? About why my memories were bound, about the fact that no one loved me…" Atemu muttered as he watched the fight between Nepha and Yugi. He tried to ignore the guilt that gripped his heart, since he was standing off to the side watching his seventeen-year-old fiancée took on his psychotic first wife alone. With his attention focused on the fight before them intently, he missed the frown that passed over features and the tightening of her grip on her short staff.

**"You can question your past all you wish to, but you should seriously consider the times that you now reside in. Why would they seal your memories of one person just so they could repeat the past in the distant future? I doubt any of them had such plans." **Heba snapped, causing him to jump and face her with wide eyes, as her eyes narrowed in an uncharacteristic look of anger. **"I do not know if she was right or wrong, I do not care if she was right or wrong, because in the end this land is not Khemet and this city is not Thebes and you are not in a position of power over a group of people." **She answered as an awkward silence was left between them, cut only by the sounds of metal on metal and hissed out insults or protests at being tied up from Isis.

"If you don't care, why should I?" he asked as she dropped her short staff and lashed out, roughly grabbing his shoulders and spun him to face her.

**"I do care but I do not have all the answers. If you do not think about what you plan on doing you will destroy your own happiness and the trust of someone who loves you with all her heart." **Heba told him with narrowed eyes. "**You have a deeper bond to her than you had with myself or your mother. Yugi not only completed the Millennium Puzzle, but also was patient with your bouts of possessiveness and did not shy away from your presence even when you accidentally hurt her. That teenage girl that you are about to toss to the wind does not want what the impossible, she truly loves you for you and not anything else."** Heba growled out as Atemu looked surprised by that admission. **"If you do not love her, let me remove her memories of you and this whole ordeal and let her move on with her life as if nothing happened. I will spare her the pain of this heart breaking betrayal and years of pain."**

"Spare her the pain?" Atemu echoed in a hollow tone, eyebrows furrowing in thought. Maybe that was the real reason why they removed his memories, considering the fact that he knew Yugi did not trust him off the bat. She forced him to earn her trust and if he betrayed that there was no going back, which led to the possibility of her falling into a depression and Kaiba stepping in… His thoughts trailed off there as he shivered. He would be playing into Kaiba's views of him which meant the young man could make his afterlife worse, not to mention what they others would do. "Is that why they did that to me?" he asked as she sighed.

**"Zuka told me, before we entered this arena, they did that so you could cope and the kingdom would be strong. It was selfish of them to do so without your consent, since I am assuming they did this behind your back."** She honestly answered as she let the tension leave his body. **"At the end of the day, they did it for you and the kingdom more than for themselves. You know that Master Shadi would not have sealed your memories without reason, nor your mother, or anyone else."**

"The question still stands, why did her words ring true?" he asked her again, bringing the conversation full circle, as Heba shrugged and dusted some imaginary dust from her white over attire.

**"Taking an educated guess, they did not ask you for your permission to bind your memories so you did not know the motives before hand nor did you know anything surrounding my death because of the sealing." **She answered as he cracked a smile at her answer, vaguely remembering her serious and formal approach to everything. His mind felt a bit calmer with her reassurances, a bit more confident at what he should do now. **"Atemu, why are you still watching Yugi fight Nepha?"**There was a hidden threat under those words and Atemu twitched, he really did not want to see his deceased second wife angry.

* * *

During the meaningful conversation between Atemu and Heba, Nepha had been swearing up a storm because she found that fighting Yugi was not as easy as she originally thought. All of her formal Amazon training was nothing when it came to the fact that Yugi, who had a fraction of Heba's fighting knowledge, played dirty. The ancient Amazon did not like the kicks to her shins and knees, which threw her off balance to get hit with the staff the teen welded, or the occasional head butt that allowed Yugi to swing for her head while she tried to regain her focus. Eventually Nepha lost her sword, due to a lucky hit to her wrist by the head of the staff Yugi welded, and was knocked back by the end of the staff. "I should have had her kill you when I had the chance!" the Amazon hissed out as Yugi quickly straddled her thighs and had the staff against her throat.

"Even than you were weak in mind and spirit, you evil bitch." Yugi growled out and pressed downwards while Nepha grasped the staff and pushed up, attempting to prevent her own suffocation.

"You'll always remind him of Heba." Nepha hissed out with narrowed eyes as Yugi snorted.

"That may be true and than it may not be, but at least I won't remind him of a certain ugly, gold digging hag." Yugi stated smugly as her purple eyes reflected her confidence, to Nepha's annoyance as their stalemate continued.

"That's rich coming from a heartless, ice bitch like you." Nepha returned as she gained an inch, but Yugi shifted up a bit so that she could dig her knees into Nepha's unprotected side, making the Amazon gasp in pain as her ribs were squeezed.

"Better than being a bitter gorgon who could not find it in her little, black heart to be content with life." The teen growled, taking a risk by bringing her elbows together and driving down into Nepha's sternum, making the Amazon gasp as her breath was stolen. Yugi took advantage of her distraction and had the staff against Nepha's throat.

* * *

Zuka gleefully watched as all the events unfolded before him from his slightly uncomfortable seat on Isis's back, since said woman tried to get him off of her back. That was hard for her to do because she had been expertly hog tied with strong linen and had no leverage. The grinning, white haired young man had his elbows on his knees and his chin cradled between his hands, a rather amused grin splitting his face. After all the pain and trouble Nepha had caused him and his own in the past, he was enjoying the fact that Yugi was not going easy on the annoying Amazon. He knew that Heba did not possess the teenager, since Yugi had a rather creepy grin on her face and her eyes reflected her amusement.

For a moment he let his mind wonder over what he did know. In the past he had admired Heba for her calm approach to everything and how she dealt with the Pharaoh's emotional times, even when it pissed him off because he thought she had the personality of unmoving sand. The two boys he looked after, one of which was his lover at that time, had liked her well enough but that was probably because she did not look down on them and treated them normally.

In all of his time awake during the modern times, he had found little to be interested in and then Ryou had moved them to Japan since his father wanted to get away from his deceased wife's family in England. When they had first met Yugi and Kaiba he had a deja vu moment, even if Ryou did not understand that feeling at the time, and he had expected them to be mirrors of the past. He was not disappointed when Kaiba proved that theory, but Yugi confused him. Throughout school and Duelist Kingdom he could not figure out the girl, even with the fact that she acted a bit like Kaiba with her indifference yet still helped people when she wanted.

Now, while watching as she tried to subdue Nepha, he remembered what had been revealed and felt a small feeling of pride swell in his chest. The untouchable, always calm and collected Heba's power had been reborn in a girl that was nothing like her predecessor. This girl was obviously passionate, indifferent, devious, and just waiting to be corrupted to the dark side! The Pharaoh could not stop him for very long, the newly reawakened Amon would be out of commission for a bit and could not keep him away, and Ryou could not stand up to him very well yet.

"Hey Pharaoh, are you going to let your darling fiancée fight your evil ex-wife or are you going to find your balls and step in?" he drawled out as the attention of the two magic users standing across from him on the far side of the arena. "What kind of fiancée are you, letting a teenage girl fight your battles? Where's your chivalry?" he asked and got to his feet, turning a bit to the side and kicking Isis in the back, making the delusional woman cry out in pain.

"You are lecturing me on chivalry?" Atemu growled with narrowed eyes as Zuka smirked. There was the spark of life he remembered the Pharaoh having in the past when he was challenged, when he was insulted and annoyed by something.

"Yeah, I am. I got the psycho priestess here taken care of in under five minutes and you're over there chatting with Heba like you have all the time in the world! Maybe Yugi deserves a better fiancée; I'm sure I could take her under my wing and find the perfect one…" he trailed off as the Pharaoh stalked forward to do something. "Finally, I thought he would need to be knocked up the head." Zuka grumbled to himself as he plopped back down on to Isis, making her cry out in pain again. "Suck it up, bitch, life is pain." He told her with a snort and decided to watch the proceedings in peace.

"Waxing philosophic again?" a voice dryly asked as Mahaad stepped from the shadows holding the Millennium Tauk in his left hand by his index finger and thumb, much like a person would a particularly smelly shirt or sock. His attire looked as if it had seen better days, between the scorched edges and the slashes that marred his armor, with his hair in disarray and mud splattered all over everything. Zuka was not that surprised by his sudden appearance, but was snickering at how he looked since the Dark Magician rarely appeared in any situation less than pristine in looks.

"Took ya' long enough, did you decide to take a coffee break?" Zuka asked with a snicker as the Dark Magician rolled his eyes and stopped by Zuka's side. "Or was it something else?" he added in a sweet tone and leered at the Magician.

"Oh yes, I had time to take such a break while finding this blasted thing in the middle of a sadistic game set up by that blasted Amazon. The Mystic Elf is on a rampage due to something none of us know, the Summoned Skull is curled up in a fetal position thinking he is a domesticated cat, and the Curse of Dragon is still fighting with one of the hundreds of unnamed shadow creatures." He ranted while dropping the golden item into the Thief King's lap. "I find it rather disheartening that I don't get some sort of appreciation for this endeavor."

"You're my hero." Zuka stated batting his eyelashes at the Magician as if he was a swooning damsel, causing the Magician to shiver and disappear. "I think he needs a girlfriend, or boyfriend… never know how a person swings till you knock them off the swing." He muttered to himself and turned his attention back to the fight, only to find that Nepha was still on the ground only Atemu was keeping her down while Yugi was no where to be found. "Great, where is instant replay when you need it?" he whined picking the necklace up by its clasp and glaring at it, since he had no idea what to do with it due to the fact the plan was only half formed.

* * *

When the Dark Magician had arrived with his part of the plan, Yugi had been tossed off of Nepha because she drew her power from the Millennium Tauk. This gave the Amazon an opening to kill the teenager only to find that she was now fighting Atemu, who was no longer pulling his punches. Yugi laid on her back for a few moments staring up at the dark ceiling, trying to regain her bearings, when the ghostly form of Heba leaned over her with a proud look in her eyes and a smile curling her lips. "Yes?" Yugi asked as she sat up and got to her feet. Glancing around she seen a bored Zuka sitting on a still hog-tied and struggling Isis holding the Millennium Tauk while Atemu, who looked damned determine to win, fought Nepha, who had gained her third wind of the match.

**"Get the blade that was knocked away, the one that Isis had from the Millennium Rod."**Heba stated as her smile fell and her gaze hardened when her attention turned back to the duel, but Yugi was a bit confused to why that was needed. Before she could voice her concerns, Heba was a step ahead of her. **"We will bind her into the blade, creating an eighth item until we can have Master Shadi expel her spirit for all time."**

"Couldn't we just get Shadi to arrive here?" Yugi asked as Heba glared at the teenager.

**"Just get the blade."**The ghost stated as Yugi made her way across the arena, maneuvering herself around the fight that was still taking place, and than cut behind Zuka while he was staring off into space. The teen hoped that the blade was visible, because she did not want to be looking for the preferable needle in a haystack. Everything else was already going horribly wrong; she did not want anything else to be added to the list. She stopped as the sound of something metal being ground into the stone was heard, well the sound wasn't that specific because Yugi barely felt that she was stepping on something.

"Lucky." She muttered to herself, lifting her foot as the torchlight reflected off of a slim blade, that was only six inches long and two wide at the base mounted on a crude black handle. She bent down and carefully picked it up and quickly made her way back towards the fight, only to find that Heba was standing by Zuka now and they were not talking. "Got your damned blade. Now what, oh wise ghost?" Yugi sarcastically asked as Zuka snickered and Heba frowned at the sarcasm.

**"We need to bind her to the blade."**Heba stated with a straight face as both stared at her while Atemu hit the ground and Nepha straddled him, his staff his only defense against the sword she was pressing down against it.

"You two are truly sisters, that is or was Nepha's original plan to finally kill the Pharaoh." Zuka pointed out with a slightly disturbed look on his face as Yugi tilted her head to the side and regarded Heba for a moment. Both teenager and Thief King felt a little afraid of this fact, since said Thief King had been present to hear it from the Amazon's mouth.

"All creepiness aside, do you know how to do what you are asking?" Yugi asked Heba with a skeptical look. "It is hard to execute a plan that is impossible from the beginning and we are talking about the end of this damned game and the pain it is causing everyone." She growled out and turned to the spirit, the dagger clutched in her left hand with her arms crossed.

"Very good question, so can you seal her into the blade since you are technically a ghost with no powers?" Zuka asked with a frown as he decided to glare at the Tauk instead of getting up to make the situation look dramatic. He missed the fact that Heba flushed in embarrassment that crossed over Heba's features, but he did hear Yugi groan in defeat.

"This situation is either irony at its best or poetic justice." Yugi muttered and than turned away from Heba and watched as the Thief King, who suddenly grinned and picked up the other side of the Tauk and held it as if he was about to put it on. "You look like Christmas came early."

"Let's play it by ear." He stated cheerfully as Yugi quirked an eyebrow in question and Heba frowned at the suggestion.

"You do realize that if we fail, things go to hell rather quickly." Yugi pointed out as he shrugged, but did not let go of the Tauk clasps or stop grinning.

"What I remember of Nepha is that she was raised a perfectionist, but also she would never go into one of her plans half-assed. She was in possession of the Millennium Ring at one point in time, I remember feeling Nepha's presence from Miss Understood here before Ryou gained the Ring, and she had the Millennium Rod before Malik took it for himself." He stated getting up off of Isis and held the Tauk in front of Yugi. "The other fact we know is that she has been awake longer than any of us bound in the Millennium Items, coupled with my memories that means she had access to **_everything_**." His stress of the last word of his small lecture made Yugi's eyes widen while Heba was silent.

**"If that is true, than everything is ready." **Heba whispered as Zuka nodded and dropped one side of the Tauk so it dangled from his left hand and he bared his teeth in a feral grin. **"That is a good theory, but we cannot take that chance."**She added as Zuka kept his grin but his eyes narrowed as he stared at Heba.

"We can and we will." Yugi stated as she brought the dagger up to eye level while the Thief King snickered at the look of annoyance that crossed Heba's usually emotionless visage. "No offence Heba, I know you have more experience in these situations than I do, but standing around and bull shitting about a possible means to end this is getting annoying. If we don't take a risk now we will never and I am not going to let Atemu fight alone." With that the teenager spun on her heel and stalked towards the two fighters, Atemu on his back with his staff blocking Nepha's sword while she straddle his waist for leverage.

A deja-vu moment, but no one was going to voice that.

Taking in a deep breath, and hoping that her luck was still with her, Yugi lunged forward and buried the dagger into the distracted Amazon's back and than quickly backed away. With his opponent distracted Atemu shoved the Amazon off of him and sat up, his staff in a defensive position as if waiting for her to attack him again despite the injury. Instead the woman landed on her back, shoving the dagger deeper into her. No sound of pain was heard from Nepha, at first, but than she screamed and slowly began to disappear into the blade buried into her back. Within a few moments the last of her spirit disappeared into the crude dagger, her passing marked only by the clatter of the blade to the ground.

Yugi sighed and brought a hand up to rub the back of her neck as the Shadow Realms retreated from their world, seeing the game was over with Atemu and Yugi's defeat of Nepha. Dark stonewalls and the stone floor turned into blue walls with posters, a blue carpeted floor, and the furniture was back in place with a typical door. **"That was a foolish move, even if it did work!"**Heba shouted in anger, but Zuka's cackling drowned her shout out.

"Ignoring you." Yugi cheerfully told them and than tackled Atemu in a hug, which made the leather clad ex-Pharaoh laugh. He wrapped his arms around his fiancée and held her tight, leaning down to bury his face into her shoulder while swearing to never let that kind of doubt cloud his mind again. "You scared the hell out of me, my Shadow." She whispered in his ear as he smiled at the endearment.

"Like wise, my Hikari." He admitted as Zuka groaned at the sappy scene, causing Atemu to glance up and glare at him for disturbing it.

"Your oh-so-sweet moment is just so touching that I think I have cavities." He stated crossing his arms while Heba faded away, not really comfortable watching her husband hug another woman when he rarely showed such emotion to her. "Can we wrap this up? There is a bed and a passed out Chibi-Hikari waiting for us… reverse that, there is a Chibi-Hikari and a bed waiting for us." Yugi turned to stare at Zuka and noted he was almost bouncing up and down in sheer happiness.

"We'll take care of this, you get Ryou home." Yugi told him as he was out of the room before they could blink. "How much time do you think passed?" she asked Atemu, who was silent for a moment.

"Not sure, but we are not done here." Atemu told her as they carefully disentangled themselves from their embrace, getting to their feet afterwards and brushing imaginary dirt from their clothes and surveying the damage. He watched as Yugi approached the dagger that had Nepha's spirit bound in it, crouching down by it. A moment later she slipped off her dress jacket and than unbuttoned the dress shirt beneath, eventually slipping that off to show a black ribbed tank top beneath. "Any reason for the striptease? Not that I am complaining, I mean." He stated with a leer as she stuck her tongue out at him and used her dress shirt to pick up the dagger, than wrapped the material around it forming a protective bundle.

"To be safe." She stated sitting the bundle down and pulling the dress coat back on and that picking the bundle up before standing up. "The other items allow the spirit freedom or control through wearing, or contact, and I doubt we would want contact with this." She added gently patting the silk bundle. "On that note, Zuka still has the Tauk." Yugi told him with a frown as he moved to stand in front of Yugi while bringing his left hand up. "Are you sure this is the best way to deal with her?"

"She has been under Nepha's delusions for far too long and I will not have anyone be a threat to your or my safety." Atemu stated seriously as Yugi turned her head to the side, eyes shut. "Mind Crush." He intoned as the Shadows reacted to his wishes, which was to totally destroy Isis's mind and than they curled around the bound woman's body and she was gone from the waiting room.

* * *

**A/N:**One more official chapter and probably at least one interlude. Tried to not make the end of this fight suck so much, but I am not a fighter and it is all by imagination. Soon I'll be looking over Trio and see what needs changed and what can be salvaged, but since things are in the reverse it is hard to tell. November will be a slow-fanfiction month for me, since I go original for NaNoWriMo, and the fact that Sailor Moon 180 is in the lead in the polls on which fanfiction to finish during the crusade to finish WMHH.

Thank S2Teennovelist, she is the one that is making sure things make sense and tells me when parts bite.


	29. THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

**EPILOUGE. THE JOURNEY CONTINUES**

_It's all a game of this or that.  
Now verses then,  
Better off against worse for wear.  
And you're someone,  
Who knows someone who knows someone I once knew,  
And I just want to be a part of this._

_The road outside my house,  
Is paved with good intentions.  
Hired a construction crew,  
'Cause it's hell on the engine.  
You are the dreamer and we are the dream.  
I could write it better than you ever felt it._

- _Hum Hallelujah _by Fall Out Boy

* * *

The aftermath of the final duel against Isis had mentally and physically exhausted Atemu and Yugi, giving them a good reason to immediately leave KaibaLand by means of Atemu's magic. With that they appeared in Yugi's room at the Kame Game Shop where she promptly stashed the shirt wrapped dagger in the box that had held the Millennium Puzzle before Atemu pulled her into bed and both promptly fell asleep without a care, ignoring the need for a shower. With Yugi missing in action the crew at KaibaLand was lucky that Mai returned in time to take control and handle the announcing of the winner of Battle City but she decided to put the award ceremony off to the next day due to Yugi's absence, using the excuse that Yugi was suffering from duress which was not far from the truth.

The final duel of Battle City was one that had everyone present on the edge of their seats. Katsuya Jonouchi, who had first appeared in the Duelist Kingdom semi-finals and took second place, went up against genius Kaiba Seto, owner of KaibaCorp and only beaten by his friend Motou Yugi, and won. The duel went on for so long that both duelers only have two or three cards left to draw on and Jonouchi won by the pure luck of drawing Monster Reborn and summoning one of the two Blue-Eyes-White Dragon from the card graveyard to finish off Kaiba. There was no anger, no insults, but that duel cemented a bond between the two duelers and dispelled several dark thoughts the other once had.

That lasted till Jonouchi seen his sister Shizuka hugging a blushing Otogi to death, happy about her brother's win. Luckily the blonde's sister complex did not have a chance to fully kick in seeing Shizuka had let go of the blushing black haired boy and tackled her brother in a hug while babbling about how exciting it was to watch him duel in person. Kaiba chuckled at that picture as Mokuba came to stand by him, grinning because he could see that the damage done by their stepfather was fading with the slight widening of their circle of friends. Both brothers had than jumped when they heard a shout and watched as Jonouchi began to chase around Otogi while Shizuka giggled, when asked she said that Otogi asked her brother for permission to take her out on a date.

After the awards ceremony, which was publicly covered on the news the next morning and broadcasted the faces of Jonouchi and his sister all over Japan, things in Domino City had settled down with the end of Battle City. A few people attempted contested the winner, since he was connected to Yugi, but they were easily picked a part and shown the error of their ways. The other event that took place after the ceremony was Yugi pulling Kaiba away from the crowds of people and explaining what happened when Yami asked him to help out with the blood tests, the teenage CEO was grateful for Yugi's honesty, considering they had been friends for so long, but he was surprised by Sugoroku's involvement in everything that had happened. By mid-afternoon Youko, who was showing off her new wardrobe by showing up dressed in a light purple sundress and sandals, and Malik arrived at KaibaCorp headquarters and met Yugi before all three had a sample of their blood drawn and sent out to a lab.

To the ire of Atemu, who had yet to return to his present day identity of Saitou Yami, Mai and Strings had stopped by to steal Yugi away for a nice dinner and a long discussion. When he looked back on this he decided that he was actually glad they spared him, since Strings was a fashion designer and artist of another branch and Mai was into any sort of attire that she thought looked good. In reality, he was missing the discussion that would be splitting up the remainder of Yugi's free time between helping Strings with her senior project and Mai's project that turned into Yugi's senior project. That was an error on his part but he just didn't know it yet, the poor guy.

Bakura Ryou was adapting rather well to the change of events after Battle City, namely the fact that Thief King Zuka— as he came to call his Yami when angry or annoyed— now had a physical form. He immediately began wrecking havoc on the man-turned-spirit for all the issues he had caused in the teenagers mind and enjoying the fact that he now had someone he could take his frustrations out on. In turn Zuka just cackled or took said 'frustrations' in stride with a demented grin and devious gleam in his gray eyes since he relished the fact that Ryou was not the young man he first fell in love with in Ancient Egypt. The Thief King liked when things changed for the better, so long as it benefited him in some way, and this time around things did and he would not be bad mouthing a gift that the Gods indirectly dropped into his lap despite the curse of being in darkness for so long. He now lived in a world that had new challenges and delighted in the fact that no one was a true mirror of the past.

One lazy day, a few days after the Battle City finals, he had gleefully pulled a pouting Ryou into his lap while they watched _Hudson Hawk_, a movie that Jounochi lent to them to unwind from the tournament. He would never tell the others, in fear of losing his image as a badass thief that was far above the emotional or sentimental shit that was characteristic of a woman or weak men, but he was pleased with the changes to those he considered trusted allies or friend. He still didn't like the Pharaoh, but after seeing Yugi in action Zuka was giddy over the possibilities of how much trouble she could get into with her newly discovered powers. Turning this thoughts from Yugi he glanced down at his now sleeping lover turned Chibi-Hikari and smirked, the change of personality in Ryou's rebirth was welcomed by him since it saved a whole mess of reprogramming and time. He would turn his Chibi-Hikari into a thief soon, since the boy was on the right path, and together they would wreak havoc on all the people that owned the valuable shiny objects and showed them off way too much! Pushing that thought away for a late night dream, his musings turned to the issue named Ishtar Malik and Amun, the Spirit of the Millennium Rod, since he did not know much about either. Than again, variety is the spice of life so he could figure that puzzle out later when the dust truly settles.

* * *

**A/N:** Usually I do not like to do these sort of chapters, but there wasn't really anything that needed to be expanded on since there is a sequel that will have its first chapter up by the end of this month. There is an interlude after this, which I am using to explain a few things... such as Beryl and Youko's friendship as well as a small introduction to the Sailor Scouts and their past. If I can write it well enough, it will give a bit more insight into Youko and set up the time frame for the Sailor Moon section.

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus.

Oh yeah, Hoshiko Megami pointed out that the Trio is not so 'psychotic' and I am glad that you pointed that out! ^.^ The answer to that, I found when thinging about would happen in the next part, is that it will be a progressive corruption prodded into being by Zuka (Yami Bakura) and by the middle or end of the first part they should be in that mind set again.


	30. INTERLUDE: Reunions

Well... the story continues!

Before continuing on, I'd like to issue a warning to any that have stuck to this story to this point. The warning is that this story will now be progressing as a Sailor Moon/Yu-Gi-Oh crossover (like in the original) and will be so for about... 7 or 8 chapters, by my present guess. Sailor Moon will be in the Black Moon Arc and I will be writing based on events in the manga. Also, much like the rest of this rewrite, 'Trio' got a bit of an overhaul that may turn out to be better.

The point of this crossover is to bring the entire crew, meaning all three Hikaris and all three Yamis, together before hte ceremonial duel at the end of 'Trio.' I am continuing the attempt to clean up my first attempt at writing this series.

* * *

**INTERLUDE: Reunions**

_Waiting to cross the Rubicon  
Wondering what side I'm on  
What are these visions of me as a young man?  
With one arm pointed, and the other arm holding your hand _

_Needing a plan to keep you near  
Blowing a horn, so you can hear  
If it was only my love and devotion  
This world would suddenly be in a state of commotion_

_I never get around under the sun and the stars  
And I may be always frowning  
But wonder you will see, under the sun and the stars  
You will turn around and I'll be emotion_

_- The Motion Waltz, _from _Meet the Robinson_

* * *

Saitou Beryl, the Queen of Darkness and former ruler of the Negaverse, was feeling rather nervous as she patiently stood outside the door that led into the Kame Game Shop, glaring at the 'Closed' sign that was mocking her. At first she ran a hand through her wavy, waist length red hair because she thought a hair was out of place and now she was brushing some imaginary lint from the tanned, three-quarter sleeved shirt she wore and most down to brush dust from the knees of her black flare jeans. When this meeting had originally been arranged, a few days before while Youko was shopping with Kujaku Mai during the finals of Battle City, Beryl had not really thought about what her friend wanted. A couple hours after that brief conversation she had finally sat down to think about what had been said during that unexpected meeting and it was then she felt the seeds of doubt taking root. "Of all things to ask, why did she want to know the entire truth about my past!" Beryl whined while squeezing her eyes shut and leaning against the brick to the left of the door, taking a few deep breaths to steady her rapidly beating heart.

She was snapped from her turbulentthoughts when the bell above the door rang, making her jump and her eyes snap open only to find the door had opened and a grinning woman stood. "Good morning, Be-chan!" Youko greeted with a smile as Beryl felt her heart lighten up a bit as her old friend used a nickname that she missed hearing. The red haired woman turn to greet her friend only to let her jaw drop as she stared at Youko in shock. Gone was the formless robe and circles under her exhausted eyes and here to stay was a happy Youko that was slowly returning to her former self. She could tell by the insanely bright colors of her attire.

"I take it you missed colorful clothes?" Beryl remarked in amusement as Youkoblushed and clasped her hands in front of her. While Beryl was conservative in her color choices, her friend wore a white tank top under fluorescent pink lace top that had a design of leaves with white petticoat skirt that had pink sakura petals all over it.

"I have, hence the pink." She stated as Beryl entered the Game Shop, but waited as Youko shut the door again and made sure it was locked before they made their way to the upstairs living space. "I was hoping, that after breakfast, if you would like to help me redesign my new room and maybe prod Malik out of his room and get him to do the same since he will be living here as well."

"Sounds like fun." Beryl stated as both women made their way into the kitchen, where Beryl sat down while Youko set about making breakfast. "How are Yami and Yugi? I haven't seen them since before this whole Battle City thing." she commented in hopes of breaking the awkward silence as Youko focused on the cookbook she had sitting out on the counter, flipping through the pages in search of a recipe since she was obviously out of practice when it came to cooking.

"Whatever hell Isis put them through has Yamifeeling rather possessive over Yugi's attention, so she has been working on something in her room. When I looked in on them, after Mai called to see if they were here and if Yugi was fine, they were both curled up in her bed." Youko answered while she read the simple recipe for French toast. "I spoke with both of them the next day, but they did not look to sure about explaining what happened after I left so I let the topic drop till they are ready to tell me everything."

"Wise decision." Beryl muttered as Youko started her search for a skillet or griddle. "So, he is well?"

"Physically, I can assure you. Mentally, he is probably as well as one can be after whatever happened." Her friend muttered as she suddenly crouched down and opened a cabinet, peering into it before letting out a sound of triumph. "When we met a coupel days ago, you said you had something you wanted to tell me about." She pointed out while pulling a medium sized griddle and getting to her feet, closing the cabinet door with her foot.

"Your daughter was close to dying that night when I found her and before I called the police." The red head blurted out, her nerves finally getting to her, as Youkosat the griddle on the stove and turned to stare at her friend. "I used my powers to heal her because… with your husband dead and you and your son missing, she was my only reason to keep going. I didn't know what the Gods had in store for her at the time, didn't know that she would bring my son back…" she trailed off, sitting back in her chair, covering her face with her hands as Youko leaned against the counter and was frowning.

"Be-chan?" Youko asked in concern when her friend did not respond for a few moments.

"My real name is Banafrit, I was born in ancient Egypt before the time of the Unknown Pharaoh. When darkness descended upon royal house, I changed my name to Beryl and became the Queen of Darkness for the purpose of bringing down those that brought pain and suffering to my son and than I came to rule the Negaverse." Beryl blurted out in a rush and refusing to move her hands from her eyes, fearing the reaction that Youko could have.

"Is that all?" Youko asked as Beryl let her hands drop and stared. "That explains the source of your unconventional, yet vast knowledge of ancient Egyptian customs and pharaohs and why you scorned many texts written by archaeologist and historians." She pointed out with a smile, remembering fondly the heated discussions that Beryl and Youko's husband used to get into and how radical the red haired woman's thinking was on the subjects

"Why are you taking this so well? Most people would be laughing at me like I have gone nuts or this was a joke." Beryl deadpanned as Youko moved and sat down at the table, breakfast forgotten.

"The times I was forced to wear the Tauk, as a punishment, where times when the spirit would force me to watch past events." The dark haired woman admitted as she subconsciously reached up to touch the edge of the lace cover at her throat. "She used to taunt me with the fact you did not tell me the truth, it was hard in the beginning when I first seen you because she also whispered hateful things about you in my ear and than leave me to conflicting thoughts." Beryl looked worried as Youko tried to smile, but failed. The dark haired woman remembered seeing Beryl in many of those memories, since Nepha knew how to attack her in those days, and the memories nearly broke Youko in the end when she seen what made her friend so bitter in the beginning of their friendship.

"There is a good chance she was not lying." Beryl whispered as Youko let her hand drop down to her lap and frowned.

"It does not matter. I trust you and you had your reason for not telling me this in the beginning and the only reason why I wanted to know is because of what I seen." Youko stated in a confident tone that made Beryl relax a bit. "Magic exists, I seen the Shadow Realms and magic in action. I seen your spells, the birth of the Millennium Tauk… I cannot deny it without blinding myself to everything around me now." At this point a silence settled between the two women, but both were not uncomfortable by it.

"Up for breakfast?" a voice asked as both jumped when Yugi entered the kitchen, wearing a black bathrobe over a gray tank top and red plaid pajama pants with her hair bound in a messy bun. "Did I interrupt a silent friend-bonding moment?"

"No, just flashbacks." Youko answered cheerfully as Yugi blinked and let that one go in favor of moving around the kitchen and gathering the ingredients for French toast, since the cookbook was open to that page. As she was combining the egg, milk, and such in a bowl with a flat bottom Malik stumbled in with a blanket wrapped around his form and sat down in a chair looking more asleep than awake as Yami followed, clad in a baggy black t-shirt that had a penguin in white silk screen and the phrase 'I wish I could fly' below it and blue jogging pants. He moved towards Beryl, leaning down to press a kiss to her cheek, before taking the last unoccupied chair at the table.

"How sweet!" Youko cooed as Malik leaned forward, his forehead making a think against the table and all three at the table stared at him.

"He hasn't been sleeping well." Yami stated as he leaned forward a bit and poked the back of the blonde teen's head, getting no response. "Or he is a zombie."

"I doubt he is a zombie, much to healthy looking." Yugicountered as they stared at her back with contemplative looks, since she was now focusing on cooking the now soaked bread on the griddle. "He talks in his sleep and tosses and turns, whimpering in ancient Egyptian. He was muttering some names at one point, but overall it sounds like he is trying to beg for forgiveness."

"You watch him while he sleeps?" Beryl asked, one eyebrow arched in question and watched as Yugi turned to them with a rather odd look on her face.

"I heard him when I slipped out to use the bathroom one night, he left the door to his room open and was talking loud enough that I could hear him without entering his room." She pointed out before turning her full attention to the griddle and flipping the few pieces of bread before moving to one of the cabinets to her left. She opened it and pulled out six plates and sat them on the counter as Youko reached out and poked the back of Malik's head, much like Yami had done, with a wistful look on her face. Yami took this chance to turn his attention to his mother, only to see that she had a rather sad look on her face.

"Besides Yugi's new habit, what are you both up to today?" Youko asked in hopes of turning the subject to something else, since the blodne teen was very private and it would not do good to prying into his troubles without first asking him about them, drawing attention to herself in the process.

"I am going to check out the shop downstairs and make sure the shelves are stocked and open up for the day." Yami stated as all, but the still sleeping Malik, either turned to stare him or froze in place. "What? With Sugoroku gone and such, someone will have to maintain the shop since it is too much for one person and I am tired of laying around here and doing nothing!" he stated with a pout that made Beryl laugh and Youko coo over how cute he looked, which madea bit of Yami's male pride die.

"I'm going to show him the ropes before changing the locks on the front and back door, as a lesson to a certain old man." Yugi answered as she sat the pile of French toast on the table in front of Yami and than brought over the stack of plates, which he took from her and distributed to the two women. Yugithan moved to the other side of the kitchen where she grabbed some forks from a drawer and handed them to Beryl before poking around in a cabinet for the syrup, handing it to the red haired woman as well and making her final stop at the fridge.

"Malik." Yami stated poking the blonde again as Yugi shut the fridge and moved to stand behind Malik. She picked up the back of the blanket and slipped something under. She took a few steps back as the blonde shot up and dropped the blanket, dancing around as Yugi snickered and the others watched the shirtless blonde spin to glare at her.

"Ice?" he growled as she shrugged.

"Good morning!" she cheerfully told him as he groaned and sat back down while the other three began to laugh while Malik pouted and quickly seized a fork and stole two French toast from the main plate.

It took another hour and half before Youko and Beryl managed to get Malik dressed and out the door, to the amusement of Yugi who stood at the door and watched them disappear down the street with a smile. She was happy that both the older woman and the blonde teen had managed to find the path to take to recover from what happened to them. "It is nice to see them smile." A deep voice stated as she glanced over her shoulder at the bald Egyptian in his black robes, who moved like a ghost.

"That it is, but what are you doing here?" she asked with a frown as he nodded to her.

"My name is Ishtar Rishid, the last of the Ishtar family." He stated as Yugi shrugged, but did not move from the doorway to the game shop. "I have spoken with Kaiba-san already and he had the results of the blood tests, I told him that I needed to speak to you and he sent me with the results." He stated holding the envelope up as she twitched.

"Why should I let you in, results or not?" she asked as he shifted nervously.

"I would like to ask you and **_him_ **something." Rishid stated as Yugisighed and moved to the side and motioned for him to enter. "Thank you," he added with a sigh as she entered the shop behind him and closed the door behind her before leading him up to the living room.

* * *

Seventeen-year-old Ishtar Marikhad lived a very sheltered life and with a female that did not like the outside world and never went shopping, than again living with someone like the psychotic Isis a person rarely got to experience anything but pain. He had spent the better part of the last three hours trailing after the two women and was now carrying close to fifteen shopping bags while many boyfriends and husbands shot him pitying looks while wondering around the shopping center in Juuban. He brushed those looks off in favor of smiling while looking on the bright side— he now understood the bemoaning of the boys at school about shopping with their girlfriends or mothers. "How about a little lunch? We did leave the shop around ten." Youko asked as Beryl nodded in agreement, her stomach growling and causing the red head to blush in embarrassment. "So, where to? You are from this area so you have to have some idea where the best haunts are!"

"You havebeen a good tour guide thus far, Satou-san." Malik added as the red haired woman smiled and than hugged him, making the blonde teen blush.

"You are such a cutie with that jaded innocence, despite the oxymoron of using both terms together." She stated and let him go with a smile. "You can call me Be-chan, like Youko usually does." She stated as he blinked and she looked very official about this. "Your darling sister is engaged to marry my only son, coupled with the fact that you are the son of my closest and only friend."

"You seem oddly informal for someone of your baring." Malik added as Beryl hooked an arm around one of his arms and than moved towards Youko, hooking her other arm around one of Youko's arms, and pulled both down the sidewalk and towards an arcade that had a large sign with a golden crown and the words 'Crown' spelled vertically beneath it.

"Happiness." Youko cryptically stated as Beryl pulled them in and towards a booth before slipping her arms from both and sitting down on the booth's bench and moving towards the window while Youko took the seat by her. With that established, Malik sighed and stashed the bags across from Beryl before he sat down across from Youko on the other bench.

"Welcome to the Crown Arcade, my name is Andrew." A sandy haired young man in a dark blue shirt, tan pants, and a white apron stated cheerfully as he sat three menus down on the table. "Would you like to order some drinks while you look at the menu?"

"A strawberry milkshake." Youko stated without thinking as Andrew nodded while pulling out a small notepad and pencil from the large pocket on the front of his apron and wrote that down.

"Root Beer float." Malik stated as Youko quirked an eyebrow and he blushed. "Yugi made me one yesterday when I asked her about different drinks." He stated in his defense as Beryl chuckled and Youko grinned.

"Sweet tea or iced tea, which ever is fine." Beryl stated as he wrote the last two down and went off to get the requested drinks as they each picked up a menu and opened it just as a group of five teenage girls and a child with cotton candy pink hair in a style of two cones entered. Beryl slumped down a bit and hid her face behind the menu while a few of the teenage girls checked out Malikbefore they chose a larger booth at the far end of the eating area of the arcade. Both Youko and Malik found it odd that the presence of that harmless group made Beryl go as far as trying to hide her presence in such a fashion.

"He's so cute!" one girl loudly stated as Malik ignored them in favor of the menu. Practically all the foods on it were new to him and he wasn't really sure what he wanted to try, glancing up he could see that Youko was having the same issue. Some movement behind Youko caught his eye and he stared passed the woman at the giggling girls who were failing to make it look like they were not staring at him, which made him feel uneasy.

_"Where in the Gods am I?!"_a voice shouted in his mind as he squeezed his eyes shut and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, ignoring the concerned look Youko now had.

"Malik?" she asked as he cracked his eyes open, waiting for the pain of the mental shout to fade before opening his eyes the rest of the way.

_"Where is the sand? The desert wind? What happened to the beauty that is the capital city? Is this my punishment for being so weak and not guarding the Pharaoh and the Queen as well as I should have?"_the voice asked again, this time in a normal tone of voice, as Malik felt the urge to suddenly bash his head off the table. This was probably the reason why Ryou had told him to stock up on aspirin after he gained possession of the Millennium Rod.

"Sorry, a bit of a headache." He answered and let his hand drop to the table while returning to the menu. It was than Andrew brought out their drinks.

_"Forgive me for my failure!"_the voice shouted again as Malik tried not to physically flinch from the loud sound.

"Ready to order?" Andrew cheerfully asked as Malik nodded, relieved that he had a moment of distraction from the sudden pain.

"I'll just have a hot fudge sundae." He stated as Beryl lowered her menu to stare at him oddly while Youkotilted her head to the side. "I want to ask the others about what was listed here, since I am not familiar with any of the foods." He truthfully answered with a pout, even thought he really did not want to tell them that he had actually developed a sweet tooth in his short stay in Japan.

"I'll have an order of French fries." Youko stated as she folded her menu back up and sat it on the table in front of her, Malik following her example after a moment.

"Simple cheeseburger with an order of fries." Beryl stated as she followed the previous two and folded her menu back up and sat it on top, Andrew nodded and picked the menus up before going to tend to the giggling girls. "I'm glad your daughter and her friends are not so…"

"Ma-kun!" a voice shouted as both women, and the teenage girls, watched as a Goth with her black hair in a braided crown darted into the Arcadeand was sitting in Malik's lap, pressing his face into her covered neck. She had the three black bars that pierced the skin between her black eyes and a hoop in her lip, but her attire this time was a tight blue turtleneck with a black pleated skirt with a chain wrapped loosely around her waist four times with a five small key locks keeping it in place against her left hip. "I heard you are staying in Japan and was so happy!" She cooed while ruffling Malik's hair, causing him to blush since he was unsure of what he should do now.

"Girlfriend?" Youko asked with a teasing smile as Strings blinked and than laughed.

"Friend that is a girl." She corrected holding a finger up with a wink. "I met Ma-kunin the first week he was in Japan at my favorite bakery. Later on he gave me a best chance to meet Yugi-chan and get her help in a school project, even if I had to weasel the promise out of the wicked Yami-kun …" she trailed off as Youko looked curious.

"Why did you wanted to meet Yugi so bad?" Youko asked as the girl hummed in thought, than her eyes widened as she realized something imporant.

"I apologize!" she stated extending a hand with a smile. My name is Strings, I did not mean to be so rude to you."

"It is all right. My name is Motou Youko, I am Yugi and Malik's mother, and this is my close friend…" Youko trailed off as a brunette girl in a brown and white school uniform and a blonde girl in a blue, white, and red uniform stormed up to their table.

"What's a freak like you doing harassing this cool guy?" the blonde demanded as Strings glared at them.

"She is not assaulting me." Malik stated coldly, not giving Strings a chance to rise to their taunting, and glared at the two girls. "Strings is a trusted friend of mine and this is how she greets practically anyone when she is excited, which I do not mind." He stated as both had hearts in their eyes, which made his scowl despite the fact they were not paying attention to the fact that they were annoying him.

_"The dark girl, despite her odd looks and body jewelry, is pleasant and her presence does not make me wish to separate her head from her body because she is a fool. She also does not pursue someone that they cannot obtain."_ The voice sneered before it began to growl at the two gawking girls while Strings glanced at the two women.

"As I was saying, this is my close friend Satou Beryl and she is Yami's mother." Youko finished cheerfully as the two girls stared at the red head before paling drastically and quickly scurrying away, leaving three confused people in their wake and a slightly fearful and annoyed red head. Malik and Strings could see a whispered conversation that was taking place and while both were suspicious of the intentions of the group of girls, they were not willing to cause trouble.

"Hey!" Malik protested as Strings picked up his Root Beer float and a spoon and began to attack the vanilla ice cream that was floating in the liquid.

"This is for stealing all of my sugar cookies on the day we met." She told him as he sighed and leaned back against the backrest of the bench while she triumphantly continued attacking his Root Beer float, to the amusement of the two women. It took a few moments for String's mind to catch up with the extra information in the introductions and when she finally registered what she had been told she dropped the spoon she had been holding into the Root Beer. "Ma-kun is Yugi-chan's brother?" she asked as Youko nodded.

"It is true, even if they wished to have a blood test to prove it." The dark haired woman stated as Strings sat the glass down for a moment and hugged Malik again, cooing.

"That is so great! I can see you two getting into so much trouble together." She stated as Malik just let her of what she wanted, deciding it was better than fighting a losing battle. "I wish I had my notebook with me, I have been hit with the urge to create something that would truly captivate this revelation." She whined as the second part of the introduction played in her mind and she froze with Malik's head still in her arms.

"Your children have the most interesting friends." Beryl commented as the Goth girl cooed again.

"Your son, Satou-san, wickedly cool! His manners are impeccable and he was the only boy that I have dueled that actually took me seriously from beginning to end and did not havea condescending attitude." She stated as Beryl looked proud. "I can see why Yugi-chan loves him so much and I wish I could meet a guy like that." She wistfully added, letting go of Malik in favor of picking up the Root Beer float again and carefully fishing the spoon from the soda.

_"Who is this 'Yugi' person?"_the voice asked as Malik sat back and ignored the chatter around him, closing his eyes so he could concentrate on actually answering the voice in his head. In his moment of distraction, he did not see three of the teenage girls leaving their party for the bathroom and this move did not escape String's notice.

_"Yugi, to answer your question, is a girl that may be my biological sister and she is engaged to the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, or so Zuka told me when he and Ryou dropped by yesterday afternoon."_ He replied as the voice was silent, feeling a bit shocked at actually getting an answer. _"The crazy thief also said that she is the new Silent Magician, which was revealed by the spirit of a woman named Heba."_

_"That is impossible! Heba's soul was lost forever because I could not protect her in her moment of weakness."_ The voice vehemently protested as Malik's eyes snapped open and he glanced around, mostly to cover his reaction to that information since he only had the basic overview of what happened. _"Her decision saved one of her children, a boy that Shadi named Chisis, but because of my stupidity the boy grew up with no parents!"_the voice added before its presence retreated, leaving Malik feeling incomplete and tied and a bit confused to what was just revealed.

He sighed and turned his attention to his worried mother as Andrew brought the food out, having waited till after the commotion calmed down a bit more, and sat the ordered dishes down before the three. He paused long enough to stare at a grinning Strings, who than winked at him, causing the young man to blush before he made his way back to the main counter, where he had sat a tray of drinks before he brought over their food. The Goth girl sighed as she got up and perched on the edge of the bench, letting Malik eat his sundae without any awkward moments, but her other reason was her suspicions about the girls. "So, why did you want to meet Yugi?" Beryl asked as she sat up straight, frowning as a feeling of foreboding overcame her and caused her to look around for the danger.

"As I said before, I wanted her help with a school project that I have to complete to graduate. In turn for her help she asked me if I could offer my opinions on a few things for her own project, which worked for me since out projects overlapped a lot." The Goth girl stated as Malik nearly dropped his spoon so he could turn to stare at her oddly, causing her to pout when she seen his odd look. "You'll see later."

"Hold it right there Queen Beryl!" a female voice dramatically declared as all movement in the arcade came to a stop, food and drinks abandoned when three teenage girls in fukuswith short skirts, elbow length white gloves with trimming, and tiaras entered the arcade. One had knee length blonde hair up in two buns covered by red jewels and her fukuhad a blue collar and skirt with two red bows and knee high boots, not to forget the gold crescent moon motive in places with a tiara on her forehead. The second girl had waist length black hair and violet eyes with a fuku that had a red collar and skirt with two purple bows, red high heels covered her feet and a tiara that had a red gem in the point. The third had brown hair bound in a ponytail with a fuku that had a green collar and skirt with two pink bows and ankle height green boots, her tiara had a green gem in the point.

This was new to Youko, which was probably why her eyebrows nearly met her hairline as she looked over their attire while Malik twitched and went back to his ice cream and decided to ignore their presence and maybe they were go away. Beryl stared blankly at them while Strings snickered while sipping the Root Beer with a hint of melted vanilla ice cream that was left in the glass, finding the three to be hilarious since they had the guts to wear such tacky and impractical outfits as super heroes. "For brainwashing these innocent people, I am…" the blonde trailed off, but it was obvious to a few people that her passionate speech was not making someone happy.

"This is rather random." Beryl stated, a bit shocked by the fact that three of the scouts brazenly came out in the middle of the day without a youma around just to attack her when she had done nothing. Maybe they had gone nuts when they practically died after the battle with Metallia…

"Why do you look like you are ready to attack my friend?" Youkocalmly asked as her surprised look quickly turned into a frown. "It is rather rudeto make such accusations in public, especially while you are being rude and interrupting a private gathering."

"She brain washed all of you…" the one in red protested as she pulled an **_ofuda_** out.

"I've seen brainwashed, this is not it." Malik drawled out with a bored look, stabbing his spoon into his ice cream.

_"The vacant look in a person's eyes, jerky movements, the slightly demented smile, or even a total personality change from someone that is rather pleasant to be around to a masochist usually gives a strong hint that someone is brainwashed or possessed."_ The voice in his head dryly pointed out, despite the fact he could not be heard. _"Strike the vacant detail, I have seen many with that look."_This made the blondesnicker and Strings tilted her head to the side in question while the three girls in fukus suddenly looked a bit uneasy.

"I am Sailor Moon!" The blonde stated proudly, striking a pose.

"Sailor Mars." The dark haired girl added with a pose of her own.

"Sailor Jupiter." The brunette finished with a pose.

"We will punish you in the name of the Moon." They stated in unison while Andrew looked ready to bash his head off of the counter for some reason.

"You do realize that this can end in bad PR for you guys, right?" Strings asked as Malik went back to his ice cream, looking to be deep in thought.

"You are sitting next to the Queen of the Negaverse, who should be dead." Sailor Mars protested as Beryl decided to stay out of this in favor of eating her cheeseburger. Youko ignored her fries as she frowned at the girls, who must have been foolish to think that she would accept such a weak reason to attack her friend.

"You are admitting to killing someone and now you are trying to kill some because she happens to have her namesake?" Youko asked with a frown as the scouts froze at that question and Malik choked on the bite of ice cream, causing Strings to get to her feet and slap his back a few times. "Do you think before you talk?"

"How dare you insult us, the guardians of love and justice!" Sailor Moon stated with a huffy look as Malik finally recovered.

"You are vigilantes that believethey stand outside the law because they have magical powers and take care of otherworldly creatures." Strings stated with a scowl as Youko nodded in agreement. "According to the government the true 'guardians' of justice would be the police, who are paid and trained to uphold the laws of society. On the other hand love is something that has no set guardian and daring to proclaim such is foolish and troubling, since the only person that can 'guard' love is each and every person that is or was in love." She added, deciding to proclaim her ideals in light of the situation since she assumed Yugi would not be happy if anything happened to Youko and Malik while Yami may be raging mad if his mother was hurt.

Plus, she honestly liked the two older women despite the fact she only knew them for about fifteen minutes. She got that feeling that they were obviously more maternal than her own ignorant mother.

"Sailor Moon, Mars, Jupiter." Andrew stated with a frown, obviously not happy about this turn of events either and that was shown by the hands on his hips. "While I thank you for your crusade to safe people from **_youma_**, I would appreciate it if you did not harass my customers." He added as the three girls blushed in embarrassment, but they also looked conflicted.

"Why don't we pay and call it a day?" Beryl asked as Youko nodded, her appetite lost as she pulled out a wallet.

"It would be for the best." Malik added as Andrew sighed.

"This is on the house for the troubles." He told them as Youko pulled about two hundred yen from her wallet and sat it on the table.

"A tip." Youko stated with a stern look at the young man, as he was about to protest, which silenced him. Beryl followed her friend's example and put down the same amount of money before the quartet packed up their bags and left the arcade. The three Sailor Scouts looked ready to go after them but all they did was slink off to de-transform, resolving to figure out this mystery later.

The last thought that Malik had, concerning his first shopping trip, was the fact that he had a feeling those crazy girls in the fukus would be making life hard over the course of the next two months.

* * *

**End of Battle City Arc**

* * *

**A/N: **The joys of trying not to bash the scouts. They are in no way the pure good guys in this, but I am attempting to cast them in the "misguided, teenage vigilante" light and maybe a bit of experimentation for when I go head first into rewriting '180.'

**UNFAMILIAR TERMS USED:** (feeling a bit lazy at the moment, so I apologize if the terms below are not explained very well)  
**_ofuda - _**prayer/wards written on slips of paper  
**_youma - _**demon or something in that realm


	31. Trio: MOM, CAN WE KEEP HIM?

**THE BIRTH OF THE PSYCOTIC TRIO**

With their lives forever changed Yugi, Ryou, and Malik try to survive the rest of their senior year but there are new obstacles. First they get wrapped up in the misadventures of Juuban's Sailor Scouts and meet a boy from the past that everyone thought had died. Than a group worse than the Sailor Scouts began scouting out Domino City, causing more trouble than Battle City and Duelist City combined. All this stress is not good for Trio, especially when Zuka is sitting in the background guiding them to the dark side.

* * *

**1. MOM, CAN WE KEEP HIM?**

_In this world you tried,  
Not leaving me alone behind.  
There's no other way,  
I pray to the gods let him stay.  
The memories ease the pain inside,  
And now I know why._

_All of my memories keep you near_  
_In silent moments,_  
_Imagine you'd here._  
_All of my memories keep you near,_  
_In silent whispers, silent tears._

_All of my memories..._

_- Memories_ by Within Temptation

* * *

The Motou household was forever changed after a nervous Ishtar Rishid delivered the results of the blood test, proving that Youko was who she claimed and that Yugi and Malik were siblings, and he extracted a promise from Yami and Yugi to always be there for Malik. On August 31, Rishid was set to board the plane that would take him back to Egypt when the Motou family and Yami showed up and gave him a fond farewell with wishes of good luck. The last Ishtar had than been treated to a round of hugs from Malik and Youko with tearful promises of him to call or write them ever so often, since they would always see him as family. So after all of this Domino City seemed returned to 'normal,' or as close as a place can get when the weirdest events possible seem to crop up at the most awkward of times or so Yugi or Ryou would complain if someone asked them.

That sense of 'normal' was about to be shattered by something that no one really anticipated to happen.

"Get back here you abomination to my perfect future!" a woman screamed into the night while she chased after a fifteen-year-old boy named Chisis, who had spiky dark red hair with golden blonde bangs with dark purple eyes. Said boy chuckled as he darted through the nearly abandoned alleys and back streets of Domino City, trying to wear down the woman. He glanced over his shoulder at the pursuing woman, who had green hair and darkly tanned skin, wearing a fuku that had a black collar and skirt with dark red bows in the front and back and white elbow length gloves. She was slower than him due to the knee high black boots with two-inch heels and possibly a lack of exercise.

"You'll never catch me, you the solar system reject!" he than cackled as something impacted the ground to his left, but he did not pause to contemplate the crater or how close it had been to hitting him. That would have been stupid, so he made a right turn and made a break for an area of Domino City that had a lot of people that could be manipulated into telling the media about a Sailor Scout trying to kill an innocent bystander. It was a simple plan, but that just meant it left a lot of room for improvising if needed and did not require hope that the 'Storm-Trooper' effect would carry over into real life.

"Reject?" the scout shrieked as he made another turn and heard the traffic before he seen anything.

"Didn't you get the memo from the scientist, Sailor Pluto?" he asked as she powered up another attack, only he turned to the left and into a short alley that had an opening that showed a good many people passing and talking. He had hit pay dirt! "Thank the Gods." He muttered turning the corner was she let her attack go, only he ran into someone as the ball of energy hit the street and caused a spectacular explosion that made many scampering around in fear.

"Is it going to be one of those terms, isn't it?" a slightly accented voice asked as the Chisis glanced to the side at the blonde haired boy in black jeans and a dark purple sweater, he looked rather curious about what happened. A moment later he realized that the person he crashed into was female, due to the faint smell of flowers, and he was still in a daze and sprawled across her body, letting him indirectly feel other attributes.

"Unfortunately." She answered with a sigh as Chisis looked up at her, only his eyes widened and he froze. His mind stopped when he came face-to-face with eyes that mirrored his own and a face, though a bit younger, that resembled the holograms of his mother that had been taken from the memories of his uncles. He brought a hand up and touched her cheek, still shocked, as she looked a bit amused as well as confused by his actions.

"Hold it right there, you abomination!" a voice shouted as Chisis glanced at the fuming Sailor Pluto, who's staff was at the ready and her red eyes narrowed in anger. "With the Blessing of Pluto, the planet of the Underworld, I will eliminate you before you become a thorn in the side of the perfect future."

"That was cornier than the speech that we were subjected to a week ago." The blonde stated as Pluto faltered for a moment, not used to someone that wasn't running away from the danger or in awe of her.

"Ah, the Crown Incident. I forgot about that." The girl stated with a frown, obviously displeased with what had been declared while Chisis was still frozen in place and unsure of how to deal with this situation now.

"No!" Chisis suddenly shouted as he threw his arms around the neck of the girl he was still sprawled out over and buried his face into the side of her neck.

"Stand aside from that abomination." Pluto ordered coldly as the residences of Domino City began to meander back into the street, only they did not look too impressed by the super hero that was obviously a member of the group that was in Juuban. Pluto frowned as the tri-colored haired teenage girl glanced up at her blonde companion, who shrugged in response, but they seemed to be having a silent conversation. "Dead…" she trailed off bringing her staff up as the teenage girl suddenly turned and glared at her.

"Why are you attacking **_our_** cousin?" the girl asked coldly, wrapping her arms around Chisis's shoulders as the boy stiffened in her grasp.

"The first mention of 'abomination' was let by, because of your entrance, but how dare you insult him with such a degrading term." The blonde added as he stepped between a now shell-shocked Pluto and the fallen duo. "Yugi-chan, we need to get our dear cousin back home since Okaasan has been worried about him all day."

"Before or after we maim this Sailor Scout for trying to kill a family member?" Yugi asked with a scowl as she slowly got to her feet, pulling Chisis up with her since he was not letting go of her.

"But…" Pluto trailed off, looking lost as the people were now whispering about what was going on and she watched the two quickly disappear into the crowds with her enemy. "Curses." With that she took off down the alley, cursing her bad luck in several languages.

* * *

Yami had been pacing back and forth in the living room, worried since it was now five in the evening and Malik and Yugi had left at nine that morning, while Youko lounged in Sugoroku's recliner with a piece of cake and completely taken by a movie she had found in Yugi and Jonouchi's collection called _High Society_. He was ready to pull his hair out when suddenly footsteps could be heard and the door to the living room opened and Malik entered, slipping his shoes off followed by Yugi, who did the same, and than an unfamiliar teenage boy followed nervously and slipped his shoes off. "He's so cute!" Youko stated as she sat her plate of half-eaten cake down, darted from the recliner, and hugged the now shocked boy.

"We brought a pet home." Malik stated with a small pointing at the still unknown boy, who was struggling to get away from a cooing Youko, as Yami stalked around the two and grabbed Yugi's hand and drug her over to the couch.

"Like hell!" the boy got out, finally breaking free of Youko, and tackling Yugi to the ground. He glared at Yami from over his shoulder as the crimson eyed young man twitched and glared back at the boy who was holding on to Yugi like she would fade away.

"My Yugi-chan is stuck in a love triangle, how sweet!" Youko stated as she hugged Malik, who rolled his eyes at the reaction their mother hand. Both Yami and the unknown boy did not react, choosing to glare at one another, while Yugi covered her eyes with her arm with a groan.

"Before you have any fantasies or Yami has a homicidal fit, maybe we should find out his name and if he wishes to stay here." Malik pointed out, figuring that he should be the voice of reason since his sister would be ignored in her present situation. The unknown teen moved off of Yugi, only to sit by her side while glaring at Yami, and she pulled her arm from over her eyes and sat up with a rather pained look.

"My name is Chisis and I am going to be staying here, since that nut-job of a rejected scout will not leave me alone, and my main reason is because I want to get to know Yugi!" the teen stated as he leaned to the side and hugged Yugi, who stiffened in shock, just as the shadows in the room began to move and Yami looked ready to attack.

"Yami, you best be calming down." Yugi warned with a glare at her fiancée, who blushed in embarrassment while Chisis looked smug, and than got to her feet with a sigh. A moment later she was pinching the bridge of her nose, obviously looking a bit tired now. "Since you two have issues, and Chisis has decided to live here with us, Malik will be moved into my room and you both will room together."

"What?" both demanded as Malik snickered and Youko nodded in agreement.

"Why are you taking this without question?" Yami asked her as she made her way to the hallway that led to the rooms.

"I have learned not to question the insanity that has taken over my life, the logic behind everything would probably drive me mad." She stated as both Yami and Chisis looked shocked. "And, if neither of you can come to terms with the other's presence I am going to stay with Ryou till you get along."

"I will agree with her on this." Malik put in as he made his way to the hallway as Yugi entered her room. "I'll have the extra futon out with the needed coverings and since you are closer to Yugi in size I will ask her to sit out some of her pajamas."

"I'll call Ryou-kun and see if he can spare a uniform for Chisis-kun!" Youko declared as she made her way to the kitchen leaving the two alone in the living room.

"I hate you right now." Yami told the teen in a dry tone as the teen snorted.

"The feeling is mutual." Chisis growled out and both proceeded to pretend the other did not exist.

* * *

At quarter till seven the next morning, Yugi and Malik were out of bed and dressed to face the day. That was how Malik came to be sitting at the table reading a book while Yugi set about to making breakfast, and how Chisis found them when he stumbled into the kitchen. "Whaa?" the teen got out in surprise, running his hand throught his hair as Yugi paused in the middle of finishing up the traditional Japanese breakfast and turned to face the teen. She burst out laughing because Chisis was wearing the oversized pink shirt that had black lettering on the front reading 'I'm only wearing pink because my executioners robe had blood on it' and a pair of black cloth shorts, which meant he had found her stash of pajamas in the one closet.

"Breakfast." Yugi stated as she pointed to the few dishes she had on the table, the plates and bowls already sat out with the chopsticks and the cups with a steaming teapot, while she prepared the vegetables before she began to make the omelets. "Ryou and Zuka are joining us this morning, since Okaasan wanted you to have a uniform for your first day."

"I'll go with them, just to make sure everything goes smooth." Malik assured Chisis, who took a seat and stared at the spread of unfamiliar food. "Troubles?"

"No, this is just the first time someone made breakfast before I got up." Chisis admitted with a blush as Yugi went back to cutting the mushrooms.

"I understand, I had the same reaction my first day here." Malik admitted as the boy shifted nervously, which caused the blonde to adopt a serious look. "Are you sure your parents would not mind you staying here?"

_"If he is the Chisis I am thinking of, his parents are dead."_ The voice in Malik's head dryly stated as the blonde teen twitched.

"My mother died in child birth and my father went off the deep end, or so my one aunt said but she wasn't too there in the head either." He admitted and began to serve himself from what was out already, careful since he never had traditional Japanese food before. "I never forgave my father for abandoning me, but I always wanted to meet my mother."

_"I think it is him."_ The voice stated in awe, and something akin to fear. _"What have I done to bring on this pain and suffering? Has my failure to protect my darling sister Heba caused the Gods to punish me by dangling her son in front of me?"_ he whined as Malik twitched, having forgot about that annoying voice.

_"What the hell are you prattling on about?"_ Malik asked, the voice in his head now muttering incoherently while ignoring Malik's question. This was obviously something he would have to discuss with Yugi and Ryou when Chisis and Youko were not around, which he hoped would be soon.

"Why do you want to meet your mother?" Yugi curiously asked as she cracked two eggs into a bowl and began to beat the eggs.

"Uncle Diamond said that she was always calm and kind, but crazy Aunt Emerald said she was boring and had no personality to speak of." Chisis answered as he began to pick at the food he had on his plate, obviously a bit uneasy with the topic. "All the stories they told me gave me a feeling of being closer to her because they told me that she wanted me to live and gave her everything for me whereas my deadbeat father ignored me in favor of slowly killing himself." Malik heard the bitterness in the younger teen's voice and shivered because that could turn into something terrible, but his eyes widened a bit when he watched Yugi move from the stove to where Chisis was sitting and wrapped her arms around the boy's shoulders as he looked surprised.

"I will not pretend to understand the pain you feel, but I will say that maybe there is something deeper to what happened." She told him as Chisis sat his chopsticks down and turned to wrap his arms around her neck, this action caused Malik to choke on some rice.

_"I am conflicted between the urge to laugh because of his hate or cry because he is insulting his father."_ The voice muttered as Malik palmed his face, wishing the voice would give straight answers. It was around this time that Yugi let go of Chisis and went back to making omelets. After a few minutes of silence, which was only broken by the sizzling of eggs, she picked up the griddle she was using and moved to where Malik was sitting, sliding the omelet out on to his plate before going back to the stove. _"Wait, is that Yugi?"_ the voice asked as Malik began to mentally swear a blue streak at the voice and its tendency to be vague and never stayed on one topic.

"Yugi, do you know how to deal with the voices in one's head?" Malik asked as she cracked two eggs into a bowl and began to beat the eggs for the second omelet, but he could see her stand up a bit straighter at that question while Chisis looked curious.

"It is either easier to talk to them or ignore them, but Ryou has dealt with the situation a bit longer than I have." She stated as Chisis started to try a little bit of everything on the table and Malik dug in to his omelet as a grinning Zuka entered with Ryou, who looked ready to cry at the drop of a hat.

"Oh, breakfast!" Zuka declared as he sat down and began loading up his plate as Ryou slapped his forehead.

"Sorry, Yugi, but he picked the lock and decided to stick around today to fix that issue." He stated while plopping down in the last chair at the table as she picked the griddle up and walked around the table and sat the omelet on Chisis's now empty plate. "I left the uniform in the living room on the couch." He told the eating boy.

_"The Thief King!"_ the voice shouted in anger as Malik nearly dropped his chopsticks at the sheer volume of that mental scream and drew a concerned look from Ryou, who had been pouring himself some tea.

"You might need to explain to Malik about the Millennium Items and that." Yugi stated as she cracked the eggs for a third omelet. "He may have contracted that **_curse_**, considering what happened to the rest of us." She added, making sure to stress the word 'curse' to get her point across. Zuka was still focused on the food as Ryou blinked and than nodded, understanding what she wanted him to do while Chisis picked at his omelet for a moment.

"I guess we could discuss that at lunch today, since now probably is not the right time." Ryou thoughtfully told him as he glanced at Chisis, who was sitting across from him, and than smiled. "Welcome to our dysfunctional little family, Chisis, I hope you are not easily frightened by the unknown and such." Yugi paused in her cooking to turn and stare at Ryou like he had lost her mind, but shrugged before she turned back to her cooking and quickly added the vegetables to the egg on the griddle.

"I'm fine." Chisis cheerfully answered as he finished the rest of his breakfast quickly.

"Where's Yami? He is usually up by now." Yugi stated out loud as she carefully flipped the omelet, only she heard a snicker from the table. She turned the stove off and picked the griddle up and approached where Ryou was sitting and carefully slid it on to the plate while all stared at the grinning Chisis.

"That is easy, I tied him up and shoved him into the closet while I had the chance." Chisis answered as he left the kitchen to get the uniform, missing the shocked expression on the group he left behind.

"Well damn." Zuka muttered, more in awe than shock, before he began to cackle while Yugi put the griddle back on the stove and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"If Kaiba and Jonouchi-kun were here, I would be a Snow White in a house of seven crazy dwarves." She grumbled to herself, as Ryou snorted at her statement.

"Is Yami the Prince Charming?" he asked as she whimpered.

"Kaiba, Jonouchi, Malik, Chisis, Ryou, and me…" Zuka trailed off, counting the names off on his fingers. "You are counting Yami as a dwarf?" he asked with a smirk, all Yugi did was look away from him while pinching the bridge of her nose.

"After Malik's comment earlier, he is sharing his head with someone." She commented as Malik blushed. "Prince Charming is being tortured by a dwarf."

"That just means this fairytale became more interesting, but who is the evil Queen with the poison apple?" the Thief King asked as those present stayed silent. In light of everything, they hoped there was no evil Queen.

* * *

**A/N:** Before everyone starts getting antsy about the Trio, they will make it to the point they were in the original. I promise, it just takes a bit to make them snap.


	32. Trio: RYOU, WHAT DID YOU DO?

Disclaimer (which had been left out, I think): I do not own Sailor Moon or Yu-Gi-Oh!

There, rehashed and such.

Any term that is **bolded **and _italiczed _will be defined at the end of the work. Last note, Sailor Moon is based off of the Manga and not the Anime.

**

* * *

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**2. RYOU, WHAT DID YOU DO?**

_I'm taking it slow  
Feeding my flame  
Shuffling the cards of your game  
And just in time  
In the right place  
Suddenly I will play my ace_

_I won't soothe your pain  
I won't ease your strain  
You'll be waiting in vain  
I got nothing for you to gain_

_Eyes on fire  
Felling any foe with my gaze_

- _Eyes on Fire_ by Blue Foundation from the _Twilight_ OST

* * *

A full month passed rather quickly and now September was turning into October, bringing once again a false sense of normal. During those three weeks Youko had welcomed Chisis into the family by dragging him out on a shopping trip so that he would feel more welcome, in turn he drug Yugi along with him to the ire of Yami. This was only one of many such events that furthered the growing rivalry between Yami and Chisis. Everyone minus Yugi found it to be rather amusing to watch the two argue, especially when it came to monopolizing what little free time Yugi had. Eventually Kaiba and Jonouchi had began to tease Yugi about being stuck in the middle of an odd love triangle, only for her to tease them about being stuck in the closet.

It was now the first Saturday in October and the Motou household was working on getting the Game Shop up to par for the noon rush, with the help of Ryou and Zuka who had stopped by for breakfast. It was eleven in the afternoon when someone from Juuban arrived… in the form of Strings, who came flying through the door of the open Kame Game Shop with the grace of a drunken pirate. The first thing that Yami and Malik, seeing both were familiar with the younger teen, noted was the fact that the girl was too plain looking for someone with a personality that interesting. as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, drawing attention to the fact that she wore none of her usual peircings. The other glaring difference was the fact that Strings was not wearing her usual attire. She was actually wearing a pair jeans that were in one piece with no rips or designs with a dark blue turtleneck with a white t-shirt that had a grinning black outline of a skull and crossbones on the front with the words, 'Warning: Contents Hazardous' under it and her black hair was straight and falling to mid-back.

"Hell froze!" Malik stated in shock as he moved towards the now pouting girl, circling her as she crossed her arms and pouted. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked holding a hand to her forehead as she glared at him.

"Mommy _dearest_ did not like the nice, decent dress I had picked out and I stole this outfit from my brother since she was in one of her moods." She stated, obviously not to happy with how her day was progressing. "I came to see what everyone here was up to, since most of the people I know in Juuban are taking this day to do nothing."

"Yugi's upstairs laboring over something in her room, she refuses to tell anyone about it." Yami stated with a frown and glared at Chisis, who brushed him off and went back to stacking tins of starter card decks on a shelf. Strings quirked an eyebrow in question as Malik sighed, having seen the exchange, while Ryou decided to go back to the storage room that was behind the counter to get a box of figurines or whatever just so he could be out of the line of fire.

"I know, but I didn't come to speak with her since part of what she is doing is to help me out. I came here because I wanted to ask a favor of Malik." She stated as something crashed in the storage room and Zuka tilted his head, staring at her for a couple moments. "I think I am out of the loop with the new people, how about an introduction?" she asked while turning to Malik, in effect directing the question at the blonde who sighed.

"The white haired man with the scar over his left eye is Zuka, and he is Ryou's boyfriend." He stated as Zuka smiled roguishly at her, all she did was laugh.

"Good pairing, good balance of 'I am going to eat your soul for lunch' and 'fluffy bunny of doom' without going to extremes." She remarked as Zuka chuckled.

"I can see why you and Yugi get along so well." He commented as Yami hit him upside the head, getting a glare. "Don't mind Yami here, he's going through withdrawl issues since Yugi kicked him out of her room in light of new troubles." He added as Yami tackled him to the ground and a fight began, causing Strings's eyes to widen in shock.

"Our hard worker is Chisis, he adopted us one night when a Sailor Scout tried to kill him." He added as Chisis got to his feet and nodded to her, only Strings was having none of that as she stalked forward and stood toe-to-toe with the teen. She overlooked the black jeans and the clashing camoflague print t-shirt he wore, she would have time to fix his terrible taste in clothes when she got down to business with the rest of her project, but the fact that his hair was spikey and his facial features were sharpening out much like Yami's but his eyes reminded her of Yugi.

"You look like a balance of Yugi's eyes and lips with Yami's dark skin tone and sharp features." She stated framing Chisis's face in her hands, forcing him to look her in the eye, as he blushed at her close contact but than frowned.

"I don't look anything like that ass." Chisis protested as he pulled away from her with a scowl, all this did was make Strings smile as she reached out and pinched his cheeks and got a glare for her efforts. Ryou emerged with a box in his arms, only to glance down at the two fighting men and than up at Malik who was palming his face while a goth girl pinched Chisis's cheeks.

"What's going on?" he asked as Malik let his hand drop while the two men stopped wrestling around and got to their feet, making a show of brushing the dust from their clothes. Chisis batted the goth girl's hands away only for her to squeal and hug him like a life sized teddy bear, this made both Yami laugh while Zuka snorted.

"You are so huggable!" she added as Chisis struggled against her while Malik groaned, it was at this time that Yugi came down the stairs in a pair of gray sweatpants and a black hooded sweatshirt and she was rubbing her eyes.

"What's with all the commotion?" she muttered and paused on the bottom step when she seen the normal looking Strings and a silently pleading Chisis. "No wonder you called ahead, upstairs with you before some sort of curse settles over us." She stated pointing up the stairs as Strings let Chisis go with a grin and nodded to her friend.

"You are such a good friend, Yugi-chan! Thanks for letting me stash some of my clothes here." She declared with a grin, obviously relieved that their secret agreement worked out.

"What's the favor?" Malik asked, remembering the earlier conversation as Strings quickly moved toward Yugi, who was now leaning against the wall of the stairwell to the living area.

"I wanted to know if you could accompany me to a Cultural Festival, I've been having issues with this creepy school girl that has been stalking me and I promsied a **_miko_** friend of mine that I would attend thisfestival." Strings stated as she paused at the foot of the steps, turning to look at Malik with a hopeful look.

"I wanted to ask Yugi about something that had been bothering me." He stated as the Goth Girl sighed in defeat as Malik started to wave his hands frantically, noting the dejected look. "This is the only chance I get, before Yami and Chisis get in a fist fight and drag her away!" he added while biting his lip, feeling rather guilty about turning her down.

"Why not take Ryou and Zuka?" Yugi suggested as the Thief King perked up, grinning at Yugi while Ryou whimpered at the suggestion. "He is more intimidating than Malik, the scar and demented grin helps, and I bet that he thinks well on his feet so you'll never get arrested by the police if this school girl makes a public issue."

"Perfect suggestion, my young apprentice!" the Thief King jovially declared as he rushed over and hugged Yugi, who stiffened and looked ready to deck him, causing Strings to grin before she slipped past the two and up the stairs to change her clothes.

"Apprentice?" Malik and Yami deadpanned while the white haired man nodded, not letting go of a now twitching Yugi.

"I'm doomed." Yugi whimpered as she finally pulled away from the grinning Zuka and darted up the stairs to safety, ignoring the fact that she could here Zuka's cackling.

Five minutes later, Strings came trapsing down the stairs in attire that set the world back in balance for the group, or so Malik and Yami believed. Gone was the surprisingly normal clothes and now she stood before them in knee high, red plaid boots that had a two inch heel over black tights with a pleated red plaid skirt, held up by a plain thick black leather belt, with the hem ending inches above her knees. Her top was a simple, plain red turtleneck but she had thrown her white shirt on over that and her hair was still down, but she had pinned her bangs back with red hairpins. "The world seems to be getting back on track now." Yami teased as she mock curtsied to them.

"Ready to go, my white haired fiend and friend?" she asked as Zuka nodded and made his way back to the storage room, where Ryou was hiding, and slipped into the room. A few moments of struggling was heard as Zuka emerged with Ryou thrown over one shoulder and a smug look as he motioned for the girl to lead the way, which she did so with a bounce in her step. "Have fun!" she called back to the others as the door closed behind her.

"I have a bad feeling about today." Malik muttered watching Chisis gleefully escaped to the upstairs, probably to charm Youko into making a dessert or to get Yugi to do something, while Yami sighed and made his way back into the storage room to fix whatever mess was left behind. With a sigh, Malik made his way to the counter and decided he would wait till Yami returned from his task before going upstairs and chasing Chisis away from his sister.

* * *

The trio had barely caught the first bus back to Juuban and by time they arrived at the First School for Girls Annual Cultural Festival it was already one in the afternoon and Ryou was a bit nervous because he noted that his yami was bored, which was never good. When they got off the bus he realized that he was in over his head because Strings promptly grabbed both of them by the hand and proceeded to pull them down the sidewalk towards a large crowd of people. After five minutes they were standing just behind the ticket booth, since Strings had bought them tickets, and they were looking around the place, either in awe of resignation. "So this is a festival." Zuka mused out loud as he took in the sea of happy faces, the people that were not protecting their wallets or puses well.

"This is one of the highlights of the fall term, this is the most talked about festival around." Strings proudly stated as she grinned. "Games, food, and what-not." she added while grabbing Ryou's wrist and eagerly drug him down the main path to the food booths, leaving a grinning Zuka to follow them and to do whatever he wanted without being reprimanded by Ryou.

"Such an interesting place, the ideal place to make sure I haven't gotten rusty." He muttered to himself, putting a bit more spring into his step, and letting his fingers wander when possible. He would overlook Strings's behavior, since she obviously had no interest in his chibi-Hikari but to drag him around like a little sister would an older brother, and only because she gave him this boon.

"Zuka, save me!" Ryou called out in a rather pathetic voice as Strings was eagerly ordering some dango from one of the booths, which Zuka was thankful for since it was around the time they usually ate lunch at the Motou household. "She's mad!" he whimpered, pulling away from Strings to hide behind the bored looking Zuka.

"Is he normally this whiny?" Strings curiously asked as Zuka glanced over his shoulder at his chibi-Hikari and than back to the Goth girl before he finished out some stolen money from his pockets and paid for the dango, earning a hug from the Goth.

"No, but he doesn't get out much." Zuka answered as the girl at the booth handed Strings two sticks of dango and Zuka four.

"I do so!" Ryou protested as his yami reached back and offered him half the dango he had, which the teen eagerly snatched up. They were walking away, happily munching on the dango, when Ryou frowned. "Where did you get the money for this?" he asked his yami, poking the man in the back in accusation.

"Do you really want to know?" Zuka drawled out as Strings ignored their conversation in favor of looking around the crowds and the booths for someone. "So, Strings, what is going on with this creepy stalker girl you mentioned?" He asked in hopes of deterring Ryou from any more questioning about his newfound wealth.

"The girl is named Catzi, she's the president of the Supernatural Black Moon Club. She started to stalk me when I agreed to help out Rei-chan and Kate-chan with their booths, said that I was an ideal member for their club because of my looks and my 'aura' and I promptly told her I'd rather avoid such things." Strings explained as she frowned, obviously seeing no one she was looking for as they continued down the main path. "Ever since than she has been popping up where ever I go. The last time I seen her was in the park when she tried to blow me up." She added with a shiver as Zuka frowned and Ryou blinked.

"That is new." Ryou commented as Strings glanced at him oddly. "Everything else has happened aorund us, blowing a person up is a new threat." He stated in his defense, continuing to hide behind Zuka and no where near the Goth girl he believed was more deranged than his own yami.

"Well, I guess this is the best place to begin." She declared as they paused outside the mystical part of the festival, which was where most of the schoolgirls had gravitated towards while families and older people just smiled and thought it was a 'cute' attempt to bring in more people.

"Probably." The Thief King commented with a smirk, causing a few of the girls lurking around several booths to whisper and point at them while blushing and giggling. Ryou came out from behind Zuka as Strings laughed out loud.

"Rei-chan!" the Goth girl called out happily, her right hand shooting into the air and waving at someone as she jogged towards a booth run by a dark haired girl. It was at that moment that Zuka drapped an arm around Ryou's shoulders and guided the teen after Strings, still grinning as the girls were gathering in larger numbers and watching their every move in hopes of witnessing something from a romance manga. "I see your fortune telling is going well." The Goth girl pointed out while pulling a five yen note from her pocket and offering it to the dark haired miko, who was dressed in the typical white kimono shirt with its wide sleeves and red hakama with her black hair up in a high ponytail and held in place by white and red ribbons.

"Surprisingly, thankfully we are more popular than the Supernatual Black Moon Club." Rei stated as both Ryou and Zuka came to a stop to the left Strings, who was now reaching into a box and pulling out a slip of paper with a smile. "It looks like the turnout for this years festival is better than last, at least in the fact that this place is basically rocking." She stated clasping her hands in front of her, not reading her fortune.

"I believe it is better and I almost didn't think you would show up due to the Catzi issue." The miko stated as she finally glanced at Strings's friends, since the two were patiently waiting. "Would you like to take a chance?" she asked motioning to the box as Ryou shook his head.

"How rude of me! Rei I would like to introduce you to my new friends. The uneasy teen is Ryou-kun and the devious bad-boy is Zuka-sama." The Goth girl stated as Rei bowed to both, which they returned. "Unfortunately Ma-kun could not make it today, but that is possibly because he is just getting to know his family." She explained as Zuka reached out and ruffled her hair, getting a yelp that followed by the younger girl spinning on her heel and reaching out to pull on a spike of his white hair with a scowl.

"Malik is having some troubles adjusting to the change of scenery and wanted to ask Yugi to explain some things to him, their Mother believes it to be a good way for the both of htem to spend time together." Ryou calmly explained as Rei nodded, but only because she did not really know what to say.

"Yugi didn't want to let Strings attend this festival alone after she heard about this Catzi character." Zuka stated with a shrug. "So she suggested that we come along since they could not, plus it is good for us because we get to meet her and Malik's friend."

"Thank you for your concern. My name is Hino Rei and a friend of Strings is a friend of mine." She stated as Zuka stuck a hand out and Rei shook it with a smile. "She told me much about her close friends 'Ma-kun' and 'Yugi-chan' and the gentleman named 'Yami-kun' and I had hoped to meet them here because I wanted to thank them for being there when I couldn't be." She stated with a blush, nervously running a hand through her hair as Strings cooed and leaned forward, hugging Rei as Zuka turned away from the mushy scene to poke Ryou in the ribs. The teen jumped, since he had long since looked away from the two girls and was trying to make himself invisable.

"Get used to it, chibi-Hikari, because soon I'll be doing more to you in public than hugging." Zuka teased with a grin as the two girls broke from their sentimental hug and had begun to discuss something else. With the miko and Goth girl distracted, Zuka suddenly wrapped his arms around Ryou and than glanced over his shoulder and winked at the squealing girls behind them who were eagerly taking pictures.

"Not in public!" Ryou hissed out, sturggling to get away as Zuka chuckled, this caused Rei and Strings to stop their discussion and stare at the two. Before they could ask what was going on, or even comment, they heard the beginning of trouble farther down the main path.

"Rei-san, Strings-san!" a voice shouted as a girl in the gray and dark blue sailor uniform ran towards them, her sandy brown hair and the two blue ribbons holding her bangs back swaying with her movements. She carried a clipboard in her right hand and looked to be rather worried about something, but than she smiled and seemed to shake whatever it was off. "First of all, before I forget, I wanted to thank you for getting permission to run a **_omikuji _**booth here, Rei-san." She stated with a slight bow as Rei laughed.

"No trouble, Grandpa was happy to help out." Rei stated with a smile as the sandy haired girl then turned to Strings with a grin, which turned into a blush when she seen a grinning Zuka hugging a blushing Ryou.

"What's wrong, Kate-chan? You sounded a bit worried before you thanked Rei-cahn." Strings asked in concern as Kate, the sandy haired girl, blushed in embarrassment at having gotten off track so easily.

"The Supernatural Black Moon Club is causing all sorts of troubles with their fortune telling booth, a couple of the girls I spoke to said that Catzi is predicting their deaths!" she stated biting her lip, nervously bouncing on the balls of her feet as Rei frowned. "No one is happy with this blantant disregard for decorum and on top of it all she refuses to stop those types of predictions! I was on my way to tell the teachers in charge, since they could get her to stop upsetting everyone."

"Go on ahead, I'll go and see if I can take charge of the situation." Rei stated, taking charge of the situation to Kate's emense relief, as Strings frowned as she thought about the present situation .

"We'll go with you, safety in numbers and such." The Goth stated and turned to her new friends, watching as Zuka pulled away from the still flustered Ryou and nodded his agreement. With that in mind Rei took off in the direction towards the Supernatural Club's section of the festival, Strings and her friends following, while Kate took off towards the enterance ot the festival. Moments into the rush to get down to the Supernatural Club, Strings cursed under her breath as she came to a skidding stop because she lost Rei in the crowd and when she turned to ask Ryou and Zuka something she noted that they were no where in sight and that made her groan and resign herself to the fact that she would have to try and place nice with the angry crowd of girls and defuse the situation without anyone to back her up.

At the beginning of the chase Zuka knew something else was going on, a death fortune teller was never a good sign in his opinion, and that was why he did not follow the two girls. Instead he had grabbed Ryou by the arm and pulled him off to the side and through a break in the booths and towards a secluded courtyard behind the school, far enough from the festivities that no one would hear them or even see them. "What the hell are you up to?" Ryou asked as he pulled his arm from his yami's grip, biting his lip as he looked around the silent area.

"Trust me, something is going on and it isn't good." Zuka told him while glancing around the area, eventually grabbing Ryou by the arm again and towards the wall of the building. The white haired teen went to protest, but Zuka brought his free hand up and covered the teen's mouth as the sounds of several pairs of feet hitting the concrete walkway could be heard. What really freaked Ryou out was the fact that the sounds were getting closer. "Don't worry, it will be fun." He added with a feral grin, which made Ryou whimper while mentally wondering why he rolled out of bed today.

"Zuka…" Ryou whispered into the hand as the Thief King tightened his grip and the group made it past the corner. They both watched as Sailor Mars, who looked disturbingly like Rei, faced off against a dark haired woman with part of her hair up in cones that looked like cat ears wearing a purple bodysuit that had black vertical stripes with a feather tutu around her waist. The teen blinked and frowned as he noted the upside down black crescent moon on the grinning woman's forehead and the large purple gem at her hairline, since the attire was too garish for him to really stare at for a period of time.

"You can't defeat me, Catzi, the passionate and youngest of the Four Sisters of Deception!" the woman in purple proudly declared with a cackle as close to a dozen dolls in black attire appeared around the two fighters. "Like I fought prediction with prediction, now let's fight fire with fire!" she declared throwing black tainted fire at Sailor Mars, who could not counter it as it coiled around her and raised her into the sky with Catzi cackling in victory.

"This is rather pathetic." Zuka muttered as he rested his chin on top of Ryou's head, frowning at the fight. Even Yugi, who had no special powers, versus Nepha, a demented dark spirit with powers, was better than this!

"Rei!" a high-pitched voice shouted as both turned and seen a girl with long blonde hair in an obscenely short skirt emerge from the bushes. "Moon Crystal Power Make-Up!" she than shouted as both watched the flash of light that denoted a transformation sequence.

"My eyes burn, they feel unclean." Ryou whimpered from behind the hand covering his mouth as he renewed his struggles to get away from Zuka, who ignored his attempts in favor of the melodrama that was unfolding in front of them.

"On behalf of the Moon, you're punished!" Sailor Moon declared striking a pose before she pulled her tiara off and it flatted out into a disc, which she immediately fell into a stance to throw. "Moon Frisbee!" she shouted and released it, watching as it flew at Catzi with remarkable speed.

"Like hell." The woman sneered as she batted the tiara frisbee back at its owner, who froze on the spot in shock. The Thief King was annoyed when a teenage boy in a tuxedo and a mask appeared from thin air, picking Sailor Moon up as he held out his staff and stopped the tiara before it both of them.

"Tuxedo Mask!" Sailor Moon swooned as they neglected the enemy and the floating Sailor Mars for their romantic moment. Zuka could feel Ryou scrunch his nose up at the scene and shiver, which was amusing.

"Thankfully Yugi and the Pharaoh are not so… negligent when they have their moments." He dryly told his chibi-Hikari, who nodded in agreement.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!" a voice declared as a wave of water hit four more of the dolls and immediately froze than shattered, drawing the lover's attentions back to the situation at hand. Zuka made a split second decision and finally let Ryou go, causing the teen to stumble and fall to his knees since he was off balance, so that he could stalk towards the fight.

"As touching as this moment is, I think it is time that everyone turns their attention back to the real situation." Zuka declared, which drew everyone's attention while Ryou slapped his forehead in the background. "All the light shows in the world will not free the friend that you are neglecting, who is definitely glaring down at us. Hello, Sailor Mars!" he cheerfully stated waving up at the angry looking sailor scout.

"Get out of here before you get hurt!" Sailor Moon shouted at him as he snorted and tilted his head to the side with a condescending smirk, staring directly at Catzi.

"Since you seem to enjoy games, youngest of the four Sister of Deception, let's see if you can stand up to a Shadow Game." He stated with a feral grin as the area around them darkened till everyone was now standing in a room with sandstone floors with a large circle etched into the floor, two stone chairs sat at opposite ends of the circle. Zuka snapped his fingers as the fire around Sailor Mars disappeared and dropped her down into the chair behind Catzi, allowing her to quickly adjust how she was sitting with a blush. The other scouts and Tuxedo Mask decided to take this chance to runtowards her only to freeze in place with a snap of Zuka's fingers while Catzi frowned, noting that her fire capture spell around Mars had disappeareed. "Oh no, you are the spectators to this event." He sneered as them and waved his hand as the shadows around the other two scouts and Tuxedo Mask hauled them to the far side of the circle so they could watch the duel between Catzi and Zuka.

"Must we do this now?" Ryou asked as Zuka glanced over his shoulder and seen that his chibi-Hikari was sitting in the other chair looking rather nervous.

"Where are my minions? My spell!" Catzi declared as the Thief King snorted.

"They were assimilated into the shadows, since they were creatures created from darkness and your attack is about the same." He answered, feeling rather generous, as she glared at him. "Seeing as you have no means of summoning true creatures and beings to fight in this realm, I will modify the game to work out just as well. If I get to Sailor Mars, I win, and in turn if you land a hit on my chibi-Hikari, you win."

"What?!" Ryou all but shrieked as he sat straight up in the chair, hands gripping the armrests. "Yami is going to hear about this, so help me!" he added shaking a fist in anger at Zuka's as back as the man began to chuckle.

"Deal." Catzi sneered as she charged at Zuka while pulling a hand back to call forth her fire only to stop as the white haired man met her half way, she felt his hand around her wrist and than she was meeting the ground with a cry of pain. She lifted her head up and seen him sauntering towards Sailor Mars, which prompted her to get to her feet and charge at his back with the intent to kill the man instead of going towards Ryou for the win.

"Zuka, behind you!" Ryou shouted as he darted from his chair, into the circle, and he managed to tackle Catzi to the ground. This commotion caused Zuka to pause and turn to the source of the disturbance, only for his jaw to drop in shock when he seen that Ryou had tackled Catzi to the ground.

"Chibi-Hikari?" the Thief King asked with a frown as Ryou got to his knees and took a hand full of Catzi's hair and lifted her head up only to slam her forehead against the floor, knocking her out. This was new to Zuka, who just stared at his scowling chibi-Hikari while the scouts jaws dropped.

"Only myself, Yugi, or Yami, can try to attack him when his back is turned!" Ryou hissed out as he let go of her hair and crossed his arms. Suddenly a loud 'pop' echoed in the dueling area and the arena faded into the surroundings of the real world, the game finished. "This is your punishment for being a poor villian." He suddenly stated and slapped the shoulder of the knocked out woman, who glowed white for a second before her body disappeared with another pop and a dazed Ryou found himself holding a doll that resembled Catzi right down to the mark on her forehead in his arms.

"What happened?" Sailor Moon demanded as she got to her feet, still being held by Tuxedo Mask as Sailor Mercury acivated her visor and began to analyzing the situation.

"Chibi-Hikari woke up his magical ability! Perfect." Zuka muttered to himself, grinning dementedly as he thought about all the fun he could have exploring Ryou's new abilities and added that to all the fun he could have in working on Yugi's lack of motivation.

"Um, thank you." Sailor Mars awkwardly told Zuka, who was a few feet from her, as she brought both of her trembling hands up to rub her temples in an attempt to calm her shaken nerves. "For not forgetting that I was in trouble, for stepping in, but I am a bit pissed off at you since you didn't get those idiots in your game as well."

"Strings would have been very angry at us if we let you get kidnapped, in turn she would have told Yugi who would have made our lives hell. As to your 'friends,' they were not worth the effort." He told her with a shrug as she froze, not expecting such an answer or the fact that he acknowledged who she was really. "Go find Strings and calm her down, we'll catch up with you at the entrance to the festival." He added as Sailor Mars nodded and slipped off to do so, not wanting to speak with the others at the moment.

"A doll?" Ryou asked in a lost tone as Zuka turned his attention back to the confused boy, ignoring the fact that Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask were now arguing about something, while Sailor Mercury was frowning at something she seen on her visor. The white haired man rolled his eyes, dismissing them as threats, and looked down at his chibi-Hikari with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Chibi-Hikari, what did you do?" he asked as the teen held the doll up, as if showing off his work.

"What power! It is not that easy to best Catzi so easily." A voice purred as a man with spiked red hair, a black upside down crescent moon visible on his pale forehead, appeared with a smirk and was facing the scouts. Zuka took in the baggy camouflage pants with a dark green vest, and snorted at the choice of attire, which caused him to turn to face the Thief King in surprise.

"You go about your business with these weaklings, I have to go meet a friend of mine and get my chibi-Hikari back to safety before he snaps out of his little moment and becomes hysterical." He stated picking Ryou up in a fireman's carry as the boy held the doll in his hands and was staring down at it. "No one is going to believe this story." He muttered to himself and left behind a confused red haired man and angry Sailor Moon with a confused Sailor Mercury and Tuxedo Mask.

**

* * *

**

**A/N: **I know that in the manga Rei attends a catholic school, but I figured that it was easier to make it a private school with no religious overtones. It was easier this way, since I really don't see a catholic school (no matter how open minded) accepting fortune telling and a Supernatural Club… You can argue with me if you want, those that attend a Catholic Private School can correct me if they want but I am going to keep it this way.

**_Miko _**- many consider this term to mean 'priestess' but in Shinto there is no such thing as a 'priestess' so this term is actually has many meanings and in the case of this work the translation of 'Shrine Maiden' is being used.

**_Omikuji _**- 'sacred lottery.' Fortunes are written on a slip of paper given out at Shinto Shrines after an offering is made.

The fight scene and a good many lines of dialouge in that scene, and a few before, was taken directly from the manga itself! Pages 90 to 97, to be specific, and I did not put citations or footnotes, depite the pain it is causing my inner formal paper writing self. The credit for those parts go to Naoko Takeuchi. (If anyone claims this is plagerism I will go back and add all the formal citations, but I do not own that... which is what this note is about.)

If anyone has noted, I update every other week. I am doing this because I basically scrapped what I had in the original work for continuty and such and I am tryign to avoid a long hiatus if I can't work on the next chapter and some chapters take a bit to work out.


	33. Trio: SOMETHING SNAPPED

**3. SOMETHING SNAPPED**

_Temperature's dropped  
Sky is grey  
And it ain't even over  
Here comes drivin' rain  
__  
Everybody out of the water  
Up on dry land  
Take what you can  
Cause' you won't be here again  
Everybody out of the water_

_  
Now I'm treadin' high water  
To get back to you  
Been looking for a low spot  
Or something to cling to_

- _Everybody Out of the Water_, Wallflowers from the _CSI_ OST

* * *

The story of the festival was weird, even for those that knew about the Millennium Items, but the fact that Zuka was telling the story and Ryou was holding the doll was proof enough that the story was true. Ryou had snapped out of his dazed state Monday morning at school, where he promptly hit a new level of weird and proceeded to avoid all bodily contact with people or jumping three feet in the air when someone bumped into him. This complicated Yugi and Malik's day a bit more because they now tried to make sure Ryou did not truly go nuts, especially if the other students decided to capitalize on his new found issue. On top of all that the Principal of Domino High School announced that a chess tournament was going to be hosted by Domino High on Friday, which resulted in the man pulling Kaiba and Yugi to the side and telling them to participate and win the tournament. It was now Friday, nearly a week after the events that took place at the festival, and Motou Yugi wished she could have skipped school in favor of lounging in her bed for the entire day.

Her day kicked off around four in the morning, or so the digital clock that was on the windowsill next to her bed told her, and while she lay staring at the ceiling she could not figure out why she was awake. After a few moments she sat up and looked around her room for a moment before turning her attention to where Malik was sleeping in the center of her room on a futon. Throwing the sheets back and than swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, she leaned forward and seen that he was actually fighting something off in his sleep and was muttering in ancient Egyptian. "Malik." She whispered as the blonde's face twisted and tears were leaking from the corners of his eyes, he looked to be in pain despite the fact he was physically fine. Yugi bit her lip as she got to her feet and moved around the futon before she kneeled at Malik's side and than reached out to touch his shoulder.

"No!" he nearly shouted as his hand lashed out and caught her wrist in a strong grip, which made Yugi wince as Malik's eyes flew open and he was staring up at her fear and pain. With the little knowledge she had about those with Millennium Items that had spirits, mostly second hand comments about her appearance when Yami had taken over her body a few times and the physical differences in Ryou when Zuka took over, she knew that Malik was not in control. His facial features were too sharp, his eyes were a bluish-purple instead of the normal lavender color, and she could see three vicious scar lines down his right cheek.

"Your safe." Yugi told him as she did not break eye contact with her possessed brother, nor did she move to free herself from his grip. He said nothing as he suddenly released her wrist only to sit up and wrap his arms around her shoulders, burying his face into the crook of her neck with his entire body trembling.

"I ask for you forgiveness for my dangerous error, I didn't know she would actually go that far into the corruption that our Mother perpetuated." He whispered into Yugi's neck as his grip tightened just a bit, enough to let him know that this was not a dream. "It is my fault that Heba and her daughter were lost, that her son blamed the Pharaoh for ignoring him. I should have set Chisis right, should have snapped the Pharaoh from his depression by reminding him of his legacy, but I was too weak and everything was falling a part." He explained, pulling away from her as Yugi just stared at him.

"But, I'm not Heba…" she trailed off as he shook his head.

"I know that she will never be reborn, I was there for her final breaths that led to her sacrifice as was the Pharaoh's mother and Heba's old master, and I understand that I may have missed my only chance to speak to her." He stated as his hands moved so that he was gripping her shoulders. "I am asking you for this forgiveness because you are his sister and he cares for you."

"That can't be the entire reason." She stated with a frown, bringing her hands up to grasp his wrists.

"With the fall of the Pharaoh's kingdom, as his memories tell me, I am no longer bound to serve the Pharaoh but I have committed a crime that requires me to seek redemption." He told her, biting his lip since he could not think of any other way to explain his motives or his scattered thoughts. "Can you forgive me for failing so I may prove that I will not let it happen again?"

"I guess I do forgive you, but I barely know why you are being to hard on yourself!" Yugi whispered loudly as the possessed blonde relaxed a bit, allowing Yugi to pull his hands from her shoulders as she thought back to the so-called 'crimes' he committed. "Wait, Heba and Atemu's son is named Chisis?" she asked as he nodded and than shivered, his sharp features fading into Malik's slightly rounded features. "Wait!" she got out as he slumped forward, asleep, and left her mentally whimpering.

Yugi sighed as she carefully tucked Malik back into his futon and than got to her feet and left her room, silently padded through the living room and into the kitchen in her black pajama pants and a baggy purple t-shirt. She moved to the corner of the kitchen with the cookbooks and picked up the metal water kettle before moving over to the sink to fill it with water. "Did you have a nightmare?" a voice asked as she jumped, glancing over her shoulder to see a frowning Yami leaning against the doorframe.

"Just one of those mornings." She answered turning the water off and putting the top back on the kettle and sat it on the counter before she turned to fully face her fiancée, who was only wearing a pair of red plaid pajama pants and the black bathrobe he stole from her. "The day is looking up at the moment." She stated with a blush as he chuckled, crossing his arms.

"I think I can brighten things up a bit more." Yami teased as she pushed away from the counter to stand in front of him, eyes half lidded. "How about after you get back from school I take you out on a date? Just you and me, a nice café and time alone without our friends butting in."

"What do you have in mine?" she asked with a grin, bringing her arms up to wrap around his neck as he uncrossed his arms and slipped them around her waist. He chuckled and pulled her into the dark living room, eventually making his way to the couch where he picked her up for a few moments and flopped down. Yugi nearly squeaked as she found herself lying on top of a smug Yami.

"I was hoping to take you out dancing." He confided as she relaxed and laid her head on his shoulder. "I worked everything out with Mother already."

"I can't wait." She told him as he sighed, having just realized how much he missed having Yugi close to him.

* * *

Breakfast kicked off the same as every other day, only this time Youko was awake early enough to cook for the household, and ended with Malik and Yugi pulling a struggling Chisis out of the game shop and away from a glaring Yami. "This is almost too easy!" Chisis cackled as the three made it to the school with time to spare, which Malik and Yugi were thankful for. "I can't get used to how easy it is to rile him up." He added with a grin as he turned to the other two.

"It is easy for you, since you are competition for her attention." Malik stated pointing at Yugi, who automatically hit him upside the head while Chisis looked amused. "What? It is only the truth!" the blonde whined as she rolled her eyes.

"Besides your usual game of baiting Yami, Chisis, what are you up to today?" Yugi asked as the younger boy grinned and suddenly hugged her, to her amusement and confusion, and forced her to come to a stop. Malik came to a stop three feet in front of them, turning with a confused look and noted that Chisis refused to let Yugi go. He noted that the younger teen was not interested in her romantically, if anything he told tell that whatever relationship was forming was defiantely plutonic.

"I signed up to participate in the chess tournament." Chisis than admitted while looking up at her causing her to tilt her head to the side with both eyebrows raised in question. A moment later he let her go to stand in front of her with a serious look, chin lifted just a bit in challenge. "I wanted a chance to face you in combat."

"Unless luck is on your side, you best be getting to the final match. It'll be nice to face someone that isn't Yami or Kaiba." Yugi stated as she reached out and ruffled Chisis's hair, causing the younger teen to bat her hand away and than stuck his tongue out at her before darting off ahead of them to his class.

"He has way too much energy." Malik muttered as both he and Yugi slowly made their way to their classroom. "Did something happen?" he asked her, after a few minutes of silent, as they entered the nearly empty classroom and quickly took their seats at the back of the room.

"What do you mean?" she asked, sitting back in her seat and smoothing her pleated skirt over her legs while staring down at the desktop.

"You spoke to him, didn't you? My dreams went from hellfire and brimstone to nothing at one point, for the first time in a month." He pressed as she glanced up, biting her lip.

"I went to wake you up, but he woke up and we exchanged some words before he passed out and I put you back to bed. Nothing serious, nothing complex." Yugi answered as Malik frowned and went to ask her another question, but the conversation was suddenly cut off because Jonouchi came running into the room with a wild look. He paused, startling several classmates, before he jogged back to where they were sitting and crouched down behind Malik. "Jonouchi-kun?" she asked as he brought a finger up to his lips to silence her.

"Yugi, I think our friends have gotten weirder." Malik commented as he glanced away from the hiding straw blonde boy to the door just as Kaiba stalked into the room. At first no one realized anything was a miss, since Kaiba was renowned for his temper, but Yugi could tell her oldest friend was on a new level of annoyed.

"Kaiba-kun?" Yugi asked as the brunette adjusted the collar of his uniform before he paused in front of Yugi.

"We are to go to the gymnasium to prepare for the tournament, since they hope to have this down by the end of the school day or by five this afternoon." He stated with a glare at Jonouchi as Yugi reluctantly got to her feet, grabbing her bag. "Ishtar-san." He stated with a nod before grabbing Yugi by the arm and dragging her out of the room.

"What did you do to him, Jonouchi-san?" Malik asked as the other boy got to his feet, looking a bit sheepish as he took Yugi's desk.

"Nothing bad, but he has an interestin' way of showin' affection." Jonouchi stated as Malik blinked a few times before slapping his forehead when his imagination began to run away from him and the voice in his head was snickering.

"Gah!" both heard someone shout as Ryou came darting into the room and rushed to the desk in front of Malik, quickly sitting down while scrambling to look ready. The blonde teen had nearly forgotten about Ryou's new habits.

"What's up with Ryou? He's acting way too much like Pillze." the straw blonde asked as he eyed Ryou, who was now nervously looking around with the occasional eye twitch.

"Pillze?" Malik asked with a frown.

"Ya' mean Yugi-san hasn't introduced you to the wonderful world of flash cartoons yet? That means she hasn't shown you any of the 'Foamy the Squirrel' stuff yet. Damn, she must be busy." Jonouchi muttered as Malik felt rather lost as the other began muttering something to himself.

"Foamy?" he echoed as Jonouchi looked like he was trying to figure out how to answer this.

"Angry gray, cartoon squirrel that likes to rant about things. Relatively destructive, homocidal and all around hilarious when you are having a bad day. Ask Yugi-san later." He told the blonde with a grin before he turned to stare at the blackboard as the rest of the class filed in for a long day of classes without any means of breaking the monotony. Malik was still confused by the last part of his conversation with Jonouchi, but did not dwell on it at all.

As soon as they were outside of the classroom Kaiba let go of Yugi and they continued towards the gymnasium as the bell rang for the beginning of the first class, which meant the hallways were vacant of any other students. "Interesting show you put on back there." Yugi commented as Kaiba did not look at her, but she looked up at him and noted something on his neck.

"I just want to get this tournament started so the day can continue on, nothing more." He stated as she stopped and reached out, grabbing his arm and forcing him to come to a stop. "What?" he asked as she reached up and pulled down the collar of his school shirt to show a bruise on his neck, which made her snicker as he blushed.

"I doubt that is from an accident of any sort." Yugi mused as he batted her hand away from his throat and pulled his arm from her grip, fixing his collar as his face looked just a bit redder. "I doubt it is from a girl, or else it would have made the early edition about 'Rich Teenage Billionaire Becomes a Man' and some risqué Photoshopped images." She teased as he tried to glare at her, but it was ruined by the fact that he was still blushing.

"Yugi…" he stated in a warning tone as her eyes reflected her mischievous thoughts.

"You and Jonouchi-kun make a cute couple, his personality balances out your Ice Prince one." She stated and laughed as she ran away from him and he gave chase, swearing revenge for her teasing.

* * *

It took an hour to register the thirty students participating in the tournament and another two hours to draw the names for the placement in the brackets before the games even could begin, which showed the lack of preparation for the event. Thankfully the rest of the matches began and finished on without any outside trouble, at least this was true till school let out for the day. The tournament was now down to the semi-finals, which meant that only four participants were left, and those matches were set to begin after a twenty minute break. It was during this break that principal talking to a lovely young woman with white hair, which was braided and wrapped around her head like a bandanna, into the gymnasium. She was rather plain in looks and wore a plain, short blue dress with a wide black belt and a white jacket draped over her shoulders, but she carried herself like a model or someone that did not give a damn what others thought.

"Do you have the sudden urge to bash my head off of the table, Kaiba?" Yugi asked the frowning brunette, who sat to her left at a table with the Juuban girl, as the woman suddenly laughed loudly at something the principal said.

"Close to it, this farce is annoying." He hissed out as a Juuban High girl with short blue hair tilted her head to the side and looked over the newcomer as well.

"You wanted to tease Jonouchi-kun, didn't you?" She teased as he turned to glare at her for that comment while Chisis, who sat across from her, snickered. "Wonder what is going on now. It isn't like he brought a well-known celebrity into this place."

"You are both right and wrong on that statement." The Juuban girl stated as Yugi tilted her head back a bit and turned her attention to the nervous looking girl. "That woman is known as Bertie and she was on the news this morning announcing that she wanted to challenge me to a chess match, since she is supposedly ranked third in the chess world. The odd thing is there are no records of her on the Internet or any where else to back up her claims." Kaiba scowled as he sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "I apologize, my name is Mizunio Ami from Juuban."

"That is really suspicious, even for Domino City. At least our psychos have the decency to appear from thin air and disappear the same way." He stated as Chisis was frowning, but stayed out of the conversation. "I am Kaiba Seto, to my left is Muto Yugi and across from her is Motou Chisis and we are all from Domino."

"I apologize, Bertie-san, but we cannot allow that." The principal stated as he and Bertie finally came within hearing distance of the four. "You will have to challenge Mizunio-san on your own time, the most I will allow is for you to challenge the winner of the tournament. Presently Mizunio-san is in the semi-final match."

"I have no doubt that Mizunio-san will win." Bertie arrogantly declared as she pulled out her black crystal pendulum.

"I have the sudden urge to be vindictive." Ami grumbled as Kaiba glared at her.

"Don't you dare throw this match, or else." He sneered as she sat straight up, rather pale at the implied threat.

"Shall we begin?" Chisis asked as all stared at him. "I want out of here before anything else can happen." He added as the doors opened and a group of three girls in Juuban School uniforms and a black haired girl in a gray and red uniform entered, the former chattering. "I jinxed it!" he whined slapping his forehead as Kaiba rolled his eyes and Ami winced.

"We'll see." Kaiba dryly told him as Yami than sauntered in, wearing all black attire, drawing the attention of the three chattering Juuban girls. "You did jinx it."

* * *

Hino Rei sighed as she ignored the fact that her three friends were attempting to flirting with the regal young man with tri-color haired in favor of looking around the nearly vacant gymnasium, noting that only four people occupied the vast room. She spotted Ami, who was slumping down in her chair in embarrassment, across from a stoic brown haired teen who was glaring at them from over his shoulder. The other thing she noticed was a white haired young woman, who made Rei shiver because she felt as evil as Catzi, and a man, the principal she assumed, discussing something. "Ami-chan!" the shortest blonde, Usagi, squealed and rushed over to the table with the glaring brunette boy. Her brunette friend, Kino Makoto, followed with the tallest blonde, Aino Mina, as they gathered behind Ami, who was probably now wishing the ground would swallow her up to spare her from her growing embarrassment.

"If you squeal again, so help me I'll give you a reason to." The red boy with red hair and blonde bangs stated with a glare at the three chattering girls, in return Makoto glared openly at him for his rude threat.

"Don't talk to Usagi-chan like that, she was only happy to see our friend Ami-chan." The brunette girl growled out as she brought a fist up, looking ready to fight with the red haired boy that just smiled at her.

"Annoyed, kid?" the young man with tri-colored hair asked with a condescending smirk as he leaned against the chair of the teenage girl that sat across from the red haired boy. "So you do have a weakness." He added as the boy glared at him.

"No fights here or else." The girl warned as she made a move, both claming up as the brunette snorted.

"You are so cool!" Mina told the young man as Rei cringed at the blonde's lack of restraint while Ami's opponent looked ready to fall out of his chair laughing.

"Motou-san, I apologize for Mina-chan's… well, I apologize for her." Ami stated as she palmed her face, causing Usagi to frown at the statement and Mina to ignore her in favor of flirting with the glaring young man. "Everyone meet my opponent Kaiba Seto, to his left is Motou Yugi and her opponent is Motou Chisis." She added as those introduced just nodded to them.

"I am Saitou Yami." The young man stated as he glared at Mina, obviously annoyed with her flirting.

"With that taken care of, I will leave you to observe the semi-finals of our small tournament." The Domino High Principal stated with a smile and moved away from a scowling Bertie, leaving the gymnasium all together. The white haired woman than smirked as she turned to the gathered teenagers and slowly took a few steps towards them as all eyes turned to her, obviously weary of her intentions.

"Am I interrupting something?" she mockingly asked them as Yami glared at her, resting a hand on Yugi's shoulder while the scouts were looking for a closest exit or some sort of cover in case the situation went south.

"What are your real intentions? You bviously have an unhealthy obsession with Mizunio-san, but that does not explain why you decided to crash this farce of a chess tournament." Kaiba asked as Bertie thought about this for a moment, before she decided to answer his question with an action since actions tend to speak louder than words. With a snap of her fingers at least fifteen featureless droids in black appeared flanking her, creating a rather intimidating scene. Ami and her friends recognized the droids and they were at a loss at what to do, since they could not really transform with the four Domino City residences present.

"I am Bertie of the four Sisters of Deception." She cheerfully told them with a slight bow. "I arranged for this tournament to happen, since I knew that the school that Sailor Mercury may be attending would not be able to resist such a challenge. A nice means of luring out a pitiful pawn of the King and Queen."

"Have you ever thought that you are taking a rather roundabout way to accomplish whatever cliched goal you have?" Yami dryly asked with a boed look as Bertie glared at him, obviously a bit unhappy with the statement. "I think you need to work on patience, because I do not believe this was the right time for you to present yourself since your enemy or whoever you are looking for is not obviously here or, if they are, not ready."

"Mizunio-san, I think your stalker may be on par with my old stalker." Yugi commented as Ami looked very nervous now while Chisis tilted his head to the side and stared at a very angry Bertie. The white haired woman growled while she pulled out a black crystal pendulum on a silver chain and held it up for all to see, causing the scouts to eye it wearily.

"Enough of this meaningless talk." Bertie sneered as he pendulum glowed, causing the evil woman to grin while she nodded to the droids and they began to attack.

"Battle stations!" Chisis yelped as he fell back on his chair and scrambled to his feet while Yami grabbed Kaiba and Yugi's wrist and pulled them from their chairs and in the direction of the doors while the Scouts quickly scattered in all directions, which amused Bertie enough that she began to cackle.

"Run, children, run and hide!" she added as Yami let go of Kaiba and Yugi in favor of kicking a droid to the side.

"Do you think you can handle this?" Kaiba asked the two, earning an amused look. "Never mind, I'm going to go find Katsuya and pretend this never happened." With that he stalked out of the gymnasium as Yugi turned to a surprised Yugi.

"Did he just…" Yami trailed off as they ignored the shouts of transformation phrases, from 'Moon Crystal Power' to the inner planets, with the cackling of Bertie.

"We can interrogate them later about their new relationship, this seems hardly the time to do so." Yugi commented as he snorted and both turned back to the situation, realizing that the droids had decided that they were not much of a threat and they were gathered in another part of the gymnasium. "Jonouchi-kun managed to leave Kaiba a nice hickey, he's been pissy all day." She than told him as he chuckled.

"We'll have to get Jonouchi-kun a present than, never thought Kaiba would be the submissive of that relationship." Yami mused as they looked around for Chisis. "Where is my rival?" he asked as Yugi bit her lip before she spotted Bertie holding the boy up by his uniform with a sadistic look on her face as she began to accuse the boy of things. Neither Yami nor Yugi hesitated as they darted towards the trouble, mentally noting that they would have to actually press Chisis for information on his past, but above all else they were hoping that their action was not too rash of a decision. In the end, neither really cared so long as Chisis was safe.

* * *

In the distraction the droids provided, Bertie had waltzed over to a glaring Chisis and picked him up by the collar of his uniform. "You unappreciative little bastard, all that we gave you and this is how you repay us?" she snarled as Chisis glared at her, bringing both hands up to grip her slender wrist.

"I appreciate all that Uncle Diamond did of me after my parents died, I appreciate his attempts to raise me well despite the issues that the Wiseman brought upon your family, but he knew that if I found happiness some where I would leave his family." He stated as the white haired woman looked unhappy with the statement. "I found the perfect family away from Wiseman and the trappings of a future that should not be, even if I have to share it with the bastard that resembles my father."

"You are a member of _our_ family." She growled as the pendulum in her other hand began to glow.

"To those that abused me because of their issues, hag." He hissed out as she brought the hand with the pendulum up and went to slap him.

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!" a voice bellowed as an explosion echoed in the vast room, sending droid parts flying in all directions, causing Bertie to falter in mid slap to glare at the scouts from over her shoulder. Seeing that the scouts had finally started to actively destroy her droids Bertie took in a deep, calming breath and than dropped Chisis at her feet and the teen began to crab walk away from the insane woman.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!" a scout in shades of blue, Sailor Mercury, shouted as whips of water flew at Bertie only to pause in mid-air and than gather into a large orb of water due to Bertie's manipulation.

"Thank you for the precious resource." Bertie cackled as she threw her pendulum into the water and than snapped her fingers, causing the water to split into two orbs with the pendulum floating between them as a focus. "I think I'll take both pawn and traitor back." She purred and made a batting motion with her right hand and sent one water globe at Mercury, which the scout did not dodge and was caught in, and than made a batting motion with her left hand and the other globe went at Chisis.

"No!" Yugi shouted and threw herself forward and into the water globe, gaining a few colorful curses from Yami as Chisis's eyes widened in shock.

"Moon Princess…" Sailor Moon began to shout while pulling out her new scepter, the other three scouts flanking her, but Yami was not having any of this.

"Mind Crush." He hissed out as Bertie than screamed in pain, clutching her head, before she collapsed like a doll with her strings cut and then her body started to melt away like snow. The droids disappeared without her to give them orders and Sailor Moon turned to Yami, glaring.

"What did you do? How did you do that?" she demanded, eyes betraying her anger as Yami glared at her.

"Yugi!" Chisis shouted as he touched the surface of the water globe, only to cause it to ripple. Yugi looked down at him and Yami could see the fear in her eyes as she struggled to bring a hand to her throat, which made him bite his lip because he had an idea of what was going on in her mind. "Hold on, we won't let them take you." He pleaded with her as the teen than turned around to glare at Yami. "Do something!" he demanded only to frown when he noted that Yami was not moving and he was barely breathing.

"I can't." he bit out as Chisis now looked frantic, which was when the scouts decided to take the initiative.

"Rolling Heart Vibration!" Sailor Venus, the scout in a fuku that was primarily orange with blue bows, shouted and threw a rotating heart at Sailor Mercury's water globe. No damage was down as Sailor Moon than squared her shoulders and stepped up, scepter still in hand.

"Moon Princess Halation!" Sailor Moon declared, figuring her ultimate attack would free the two, only to frown when the energy hit the water globes and nothing happened. "What?"

"Why can't you do anything?" Chisis demanded as the red eyed young man tried to move his hand.

"It could be possible that the Shadow Realm doesn't want me to interfere in whatever is happening." He growled out as Chisis turned to Yugi and noted that her eyes were now closed and her hands were fisted. "Chisis, get behind me… now." He stated as the boy looked confused, but did so since his rival used his name.

"You can't break Bertie's water globe that easily." A voice drawled out as the man with wild red hair and camouflage pants appeared, a condescending smirk curling his lips as he crossed his arms, glancing at the two globes.

"Rubeus!" Sailor Jupiter, the scout in a primarily green fuku with pink bows, growled out as she began to power up a attack to throw at the infuriating red haired man.

"One extra, but no matter." He continued to say and went to disappear as suddenly as he arrived, only both water globes froze over and than suddenly exploded outwards. This threw a shocked Rubeus forward with a spray of sharp ice pieces, most of which embedded in his back, as the scouts brought their arms up to shield their faces only to fall back from the power of the explosion. Chisis just stared at the scene with morbid fascination, one part of his mind wondering how Yami knew what happened and the other thankful he listened to his rival, and in the middle of all this Yami had squeezed his eyes shut and forced the shadows to shield him and the younger teen from the ice pieces. All could hear one of the girls gasping for breath and than coughing, but the other was silent, but all were still shielding their eyes.

"Mercury!" Venus shouted as she struggled to get to her feet at the same time Rubeus got to his, hissing in pain from the wounds on his back. Yami suddenly found him in control of his body again and he seen that Yugi was standing while Sailor Mercury was the one gasping, unfortunately he did not get a chance to note any changes because he was knocked forward by a frantic Chisis who darted past him and threw himself into Yugi's arms.

"What the hell?" Rubeus sneered as he seen Mercury was free, but his attention was drawn to the other person that had been held captive and he felt a bit afraid. He recognized the white pointed hat the sides turned upwards but the decoration on the front was a dark blue that was almost black, but the rest of the attire was a dead give away. "Shit." He hissed out and left, not willing to try luck.

Chisis latched on to an exhausted Yugi, who was dressed as the Silent Magician only her main color was a dark blue that stood out against the white instead of the traditional light blue, while the scouts eyed her wearily and looked ready to attack. "Thank the gods you are safe." The teen muttered into her shoulder while crying as Yugi slowly brought her arms up, rubbing the younger teen's back. "I didn't think she would go that far, Bertie has never been known to think things through beyond her own wants." He added as Yugi just continued to hold him, watching as Yami got to his feet with a relieved look.

"Sorry I couldn't help." He stated as she cracked a small smile.

"Not your fault." Yugi stated as Yami glanced at the scouts, who were all on their feet by this point and crowded around Mercury, and than stalked over to where Chisis and Yugi were standing.

"Thank you for getting me out of there." Mercury told Yugi, causing the changed teenage girl glanced at her.

"Mizunio-san, I would have trusted you to do the same thing if I hadn't triggered whatever the hell I did." Yugi remarked as Chisis pulled away from Yugi, only to grab her hand. At that point Yami slipped behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulder, kissing the side of her neck and glaring at the scouts. "Zuka told us what happened with you Hino-san, and any friend of Strings's is a friend of ours." She added while looking at a shocked Sailor Mars, who eventually over came her shock and nodded to Yugi with a relieved smile.

"I was hoping to meet both of you under different circumstances." Mars stated as Moon, Jupiter, and Venus watched as their dark haired friend, who usually was uptight about situations like this, smiled at the three.

"We will pretend this never happened." Yami stated with a grin as Chisis nodded.

"I'll talk with Kaiba and, if you wish Mizunio-san, we can hold the semi-finals on Sunday or after school next week." Yugi stated as Sailor Mercury nodded in agreement, thankful that the three were not full freaking out or running at the mouth. With that said Yugi turned to Yami with a smile. "Let's head back before I pass out." She muttered as Yami let her go and picked up her other hand as Chisis led them out of the gymnasium.

"Looks like our date will be a good wind down for this day." Yami commented as Yugi laughed, leaning on him.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry this is late, I've had my head in the clouds for a week or so and lost track of everything. The joys of juggling life, from my part-time job to annoying people I live with, and pulling my hair out (got much to catch up on). Hope this is working out!


	34. Trio: INTERLUDE: More Than a Memory

**INTERLUDE: More Than a Memory**

_I've become tired of wasting my time  
Thinkin' bout choices that I've made  
'Cuz I can't move forward while looking behind  
The only thing I can do now is_

_It wasn't fair for me just to go  
And act like I knew what you've been though  
'Cuz I wasn't there and I'll never know  
Couldn't see from your point of view_

_You're so much more than a memory  
Yes, you're so much more than a memory  
So don't close the door on what still can be  
'Cuz you're so much more than a memory_

- _More Than a Memory_ by Hoobastank

* * *

With dinner made and in the oven, Motou Youko was given time to sit down and observe one of her daughter's friends without anyone around to call her on the fact that she would be staring at someone. That was how she came to be sitting in her father-in-law's recliner staring at the twitchy Bakura Ryou, who sat on the couch with a wild look, seeing Malik and Zuka tended to the shop downstairs. "You are unnaturally paranoid, Ryou-kun." Youko stated as he jumped and turned to her. "What happened at the festival that no one wanted to tell me?"

"Nothing!" he squeaked out as the older woman frowned, eyes narrowing as the teen froze like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck.

"Ryou-kun, if I ask Yugi she will tell me because I will argue the point that your behavior radically changed. I am asking you because, obviously, something is going on and it would be better to hear it from you." She stated as the white haired teen leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

"That doll I had of the crazy looking girl in purple with a tutu, the one that I gave to you in my fit of insanity." He stated as Youko nodded, patiently waiting for him to continue. "That doll is… really a person. That dolls is, and I am not joking, the crazy lady that tried to kill Zuka at the festival. I turned her into a doll." He stated while bowing his head as his shoulders started to shake a bit. The Motou matriarch got to her feet and padded over to the couch, sitting down by the teen and carefully wrapping her arms around his trembling shoulders, tightening her grip when he tried to pull away.

"Obviously you had a reason, self-defense." She told him as he tried to break out of her grip, but she was not letting go of him.

"What if I turn everyone I touch into dolls?!" he demanded as Youko rolled her eyes and held him tight.

"You haven't turned anyone else into dolls so far, accidentally or not, and you haven't turned me into a doll. Maybe you only do that when you are threatened." Youko reasoned as he stopped struggling. "There are worse things to do than turning someone into a doll. You could have caused her to expand into a balloon, explode, spontaneously combust, claw her own eyes out, cut her wrists, go on a homicidal rampage only to get cut down by the police…" the older woman trailed off, her examples becoming darker and bloodier as she continued.

"I get it!" Ryou protested as he stopped struggling. "I'll stop being twitchy, I swear. Just stop listening things off, please." He whimpered as Youko let go of him and got to her feet with a grin.

"Ryou-kun, I don't know what you are going through but I know that it isn't good to show weakness in the face of changes." Youko told him seriously as he stared at her, surprised by her sudden change of personality. "This change is not going to go away, so get used to it. Grab it and learn to control it, that is all you can do because if you try to ignore it things will probably get worse."

"Why should I?" he asked her in a strangled tone, looking ready to shout at her.

"How do you think I survived my kidnapping without descending into Stockholm Syndrome?" she growled out with a glare. Ryou was silent as he thought about what she was trying to tell him, as well as the possible unspoken threat the woman was implying if he didn't suck it up. Both were than pulled out of the awkward silence that had settled over the room when the door to the living room was thrown open and Chisis entered, closely followed by Yami who was pulling along Yugi… "This is different. Yugi, why are you dressed like you stepped from an anime?" the woman asked as Yami pulled Yugi over to the couch, where she sat beside a shocked Ryou and Yami sat on the arm of the couch.

"The tournament was a set-up." Chisis stated as Youko moved to her daughter and began to check her over for injuries.

"Set-up?" Ryou asked as the red haired boy nodded.

"Bertie, Catzi's sister, showed up." He answered as no one said a thing for a couple moments, causing him to fidget before rushing out of the room in favor of the hallway that led off into the bedrooms and bathroom.

"What was that about?" Youko muttered as Yugi reluctantly let go of Yami's hand and slowly got to her feet, embracing her mother briefly as the older woman wrapped her arms around her daughter, realizing that something had shaken Yugi.

"I'll tell you over dinner, right now I need to speak with Chisis." Yugi told her and pulled away, glancing over her shoulder as a frowning Yami. "I hate to break our first date in a month or so, but I think this is a bit more important."

"Understandable." Yami muttered and tried not to sound depressed about his dating plans being broken by the new turn of events.

"Staying on topic, you may want to visit your mother and ask her about Heba's last moments." His hikari added as Yami blinked, taken back by her statement. "Trust me." She whispered and made her way out of the living room and back to the room that Chisis and Yami shared.

"Youko-chan, I think I now understand what you mean." Ryou spoke up as Yami arched an eyebrow in question, causing the teen to blush. "Things around here change so much that if I let a simple thing like being able to turn people into dolls get to me, I might as well give up and check myself into a mental ward." He cheerfully added and got to his feet. "Now, I am going to go cause some trouble. Thanks for the talk!" with that he darted out of the living room cackling.

"Have a nice trip, Yami." Youko stated with a smile and wave as Yami felt like he missed something, but did not question anything as he follow Ryou's lead down into the game shop since he was going to take the long route to see his mother. "Well, this is a hell of a day." The woman muttered as she plopped down on the couch with a sigh. "Mercy spare me from a boring life."

* * *

Yugi did her best to push the weight of the day out of her mind as she made her way down to the far end of the hallway and pushed open the door to her left, which was the room that Yami and Chisis, shared and seen that Chisis was not in the room. With a sigh she turned and checked the room to her right, Youko's room, and seen that he was not hiding in there either. At this point she hoped that he was hiding in the room that she and Malik shared and made her was back towards the entrance of the hallway. Squaring her shoulders and taking in a deep breath, she carefully pushed the ajar door open and seen the boy sitting with his back against her bed, knees pulled to his chest. "I have a couple questions for you and I would like that you answer them, but I will respect your silence." Yugi stated she entered the room, causing the boy to look up at her with tears still visible on his cheek.

"Just don't kick me out." Chisis pleaded as Yugi quietly shut the door behind her and than moved over and sat down by the younger teen.

"Do we look like a group to turn our backs on someone we have come to see as one of our own?" she asked him, slipping an arm around his shoulders as he turned and threw his arms around her as she kept her arm around his shoulders. "You know we would never do that."

"I know that, but it was better to hear it from someone instead of assuming." Chisis stated as he rested his head on her shoulder, much like a child would when embraced by his mother. "Ask away." He added, sounding a bit resigned, as Yugi leaned back, rubbing Chisis's back as the younger teen relaxed just a bit in her embrace.

"This morning I had a talk with the voice living in Malik's mind, due to the Millennium Rod. Is it safe to assume you know about the Millennium Items?" Yugi asked as he tensed up a bit, but nodded. "At the tail end of the conversation we had this morning your name came up and I want to hear it from your point of view. Who are you, Chisis?"

"I am the only child of Pharaoh Atemu and Queen Heba, the second-wife to the Pharaoh." He admitted as Yugi's eyes widened, despite the fact she already knew the answer, but she did not pull away from the boy. "At the age of five I was taken into the Dark Moon family and raised by my Uncle Diamond, who is Thief King Zuka's brother. All I know is that my father ignored me, maybe even hated me, and Grandma Beryl was ending the war with Queen Serenity."

"Five thousand years passed for Atemu, Zuka, Beryl, and the voice in Malik's head… but only ten years for you?" she asked with a frown, her mind boggling while trying to figure out a cause for the time difference, and did not acknowledge the fact that Chisis had nodded his agreement. "I'll bite, can you explain why such a large difference?" Chisis pulled away from her only so that he could look her in the eye.

"A being, entity, or whatever called 'Wiseman' took Uncle Diamond, Aunt Emerald, Uncle Sapphire, and myself far into the future. He claimed that things would not be as bad as it was turning out to be in our present. For ten years they, minus Wiseman, raised me the best they could in their free time." He answered as she nodded her head, deciding that the line of questioning into the 'how' was not important.

"Why did Sailor Pluto call you an 'abomination' and why was she chasing you?" Yugi asked as the boy looked away, biting his lip.

"Her 'perfect' future is… a self-fulfilling prophecy that Queen Serenity dreamed up five thousand years ago before she lost the war." He answered with a shiver as Yugi frowned, not liking what the younger teen was telling her. "Wiseman took us into a future where a majority of the population was killed off and a utopia called 'Crystal Tokyo' was formed and brought the entire Earth under the control of a monarchy. The monarchy was ruled by Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, later they were known as Neo-Queen Serenity and Neo-King Endymion after their past lives."

"Oh shit." Yugi whimpered as she thought about the bumbling Sailor Moon, with her corny speeches, and Tuxedo Mask, who looked like a defective Phantom of the Opera, ruling the world. A minute later she shivered and felt a tingle, which was the only warning she got before the Silent Mage attire faded into her school uniform. "I'll pretend I didn't imagine what you just said, let's go see what Okaasan made for dinner."

"Just like that?" Chisis asked as he carefully got to his feet and offered Yugi a hand up, which she gratefully accepted.

"If you were honest with me; than yes, just like that." She answered with a smile as Chisis relaxed a bit. "You are a member of our family, and friends with my friends. If they mess with you, they mess with us."

"Why such an easy acceptance?" he asked as she draped an arm around his shoulders and led him to the door.

"Kid, ever since I finished the Millennium Puzzle I have found it easier to roll with the punches than to throw a tantrum." Yugi answered with a laugh as he snickered. "Now, how about dinner?" she asked as he smiled and nodded in agreement, not realizing that Yugi was close to breaking down herself.

* * *

By time Yami arrived in Juuban, he knew that the game shop was probably closed for the night and everyone had sat down for dinner and he wished that he was back in Domino City and sitting down to eat with them. He stepped off of the bus and took in a deep breath before he started off down the sidewalk and towards the Crown Arcade, where he and Yugi were supposed to meet up with Beryl to begin their date. He took a deep breath and entered the Arcade, ignoring the chatter of the teenagers and families while taking a seat at the counter. "Can I take your order?" a sandy haired young man wearing jeans, a long sleeved shirt, and a white apron asked with a smile.

"Not really, I am waiting to meet up with my Mother." Yami answered as the young man looked surprised. "Thank you, anyways."

"No trouble, you just looked like you needed a pick-me-up in the form of a milkshake or something with enough sugar to give you reason to go bouncing off the walls." He answered as Yami chuckled.

"When you put it that way, could I get a vanilla milkshake to go?" he asked as the sandy haired young man laughed, but nodded and went off to do so. "Crazy, crazy people." The tri-colored haired young man muttered under his breath as he folded his arms on the counter and rested his chin on his crossed forearms.

"Troubles, Saitou-san?" a familiar voice asked as Yami glanced over his shoulder and seen a curious Mizunio Ami standing in her school uniform.

"Maybe, Mizunio-san, I did not take you for being a person that stays out this long." He commented as she blushed and sat on the stool by him, sitting the book she had in her hands on the counter.

"Study group with my friends, discussing proper behaviors at a chess tournament and working on homework." She told him, knowing he was smart enough to understand the true meaning behind her words. It was than the sandy haired young man came back with the vanilla milkshake in a plastic cup with a straw sticking out of one side, which prompted Yami to fish a couple yen from his pants pocket.

"Ami-chan! It is rare to see you in here at this time of the evening." The young man stated as Ami smiled at him and waved.

"Good evening Andrew-kun, could I get a sweet tea?" she asked as the young man, who Yami now knew to be Andrew, nodded with a smile and went off to get the tea as a young waitress with the same sandy hair slipped behind the counter with a paper pad in hand. "What brings you to Juuban? Seems a long ways to go from Domino City, especially for a milkshake."

"Some questions for my Mother, she lives here in Juuban." Yami admitted as the blue haired teen nodded, waiting for him to continue. "Trying to sort out what happened with Chisis and that is all I am going to tell you." He added with a glare as she snorted.

"Yami, my darling son!" a voice declared as Yami was hugged from behind by a red haired woman, who made Ami draw back with a shocked expression. "Where is Yugi-chan?" the woman asked as Yami sat up and turned to his mother and sighed.

"Something came up and I need to ask you some things." He stated as Beryl frowned, not liking that serious tone of voice. "Concerning Chisis." He added as Beryl stood stock still, her face pale.

"You remember?" she whispered as Yami picked up the cup with his milkshake in it and slipped off of the stool, ignoring Ami's shocked look.

"No, but something came up concerning a fifteen-year-old boy by that name who looks very familiar." Yami replied, stressing the end of his statement as Beryl shivered.

"Let's head back to my home, since public is not the best of places for such stories." She stated and led him out of the arcade, leaving a shocked Ami behind.

* * *

It was around ten that evening, after Malik and Chisis went to bed in hopes of ignoring how bad the day was, when a rather distraught Yami called Yugi and told her that he would be spending the night with his mother and that he would be back late the next day. That was both good, since Yami is getting to know his mother again, and bad, because that meant that Beryl was confessing to something she helped to cover up. Yugi hung the phone up and began to rub her temples as she plopped down on the couch, gritting her teeth in order to keep her cool. "That is the second time today I have seen someone sitting on the couch like that." Youko remarked with a laugh, but Yugi did not look up or even acknowledge she was there. "What's wrong, Yugi?"

That was when the weight of the day seemed to come crashing down on Yugi and she began to sob, which totally shocked Youko. The older woman sat by her daughter and pulled her into a hug, which Yugi accepted by throwing her arms around her mother's neck and sobbed. "It was too close." Yugi whispered through her tears as Youko began to rub her back and just held her daughter.

"Close to what?" Youko asked as her daughter stopped sobbing, but did not let go.

"What happened today was way too close to what Isis did to me." Yugi whispered as Youko frowned, looking rather angry as she continued to rub her daughter's back. "Bertie wanted to capture Chisis in an orb of water, I pushed him out of the way and was captured. Felt like I did when Isis kidnapped me, only worse because I could not breath and those memories…" she trailed off and began to sob again as Youko bowed her head down enough to kiss Yugi's forehead.

"You are safe now, my darling daughter, I promise that much. If your cosplay moment is anything, considering Yami's cosplay moment at the end of Battle City, you did not let those memories defeat you." Youko told Yugi when the teen stopped sobbing. "Much like what The Joker said in _The Dark Knight_, 'whatever doesn't kill me just makes me stranger.'" That caused Yugi to let out a cough mixed with a laugh.

"Jonouchi-kun gave you a movie list, didn't he?" she asked as Youko chuckled and sat back on the couch, Yugi still in her arms.

"All will work out in the end, my darling daughter, that much has been proven through history time and time again." Youko told Yugi, relishing the chance to comfort her daughter in her time of need.

* * *

**A/N:** Heh heh... I'm a dumbass... uploaded the wrong thing at the wrong time.


	35. Trio: THINGS JUST GOT WORSE

**4. THINGS JUST GOT WORSE**

_Got up this morning  
On the right side of my bed  
With all these crazy thoughts  
Screaming through my head  
I can't wait to see  
What this world holds for me._

_And when I see you  
Any time or any place  
You are the reason  
For the smile on my face  
'Cause you make me feel  
All my dreams can be real_

- _It's a New Day_from the Sailor Moon OST

* * *

When Yami returned to the game shop Saturday afternoon he did not tell anyone about the answers he received from his mother, no one asked any questions and went about their business as if nothing happened. At first, Chisis was rather confused by this turn of events but eventually decided to not press the issue since everyone seemed to have the 'if no one questions it, than obviously it is not totally relevant right now' approach. Or, what was going on was like the pink elephant that was sitting in the corner of a crowded room and everyone just ignored it because they either didn't care or didn't want to insult someone. Also, because of Chisis's past, the tension between Chisis and Yami seemed to increase to the point where both ignored the fact the other person existed but did not change the fact that both were still rooming together.

On Sunday Ami called Yugi and set up a time and place for finishing the chess tournament at one that afternoon at the Crown Arcade, which left Yugi to call Kaiba who told her that he would pick her and Chisis up to get this 'farce' over with. In the end, the semi-finals turned out to be rather amusing. Kaiba took first place, only winning the match by the skin of his teeth against Yugi in the finals, while Ami placed third, having fought tooth and nail for her victory against Chisis. The four resolved to have a chess match once a month after that just to unwind and hold group discussions about anything and everything, as a means of unwinding from school and any other stressful situations they may have.

With those events out of the way it seemed that the following week was going to be relatively quiet, since there had been no attacks by deranged people which meant no Sailor Scouts. The only exception, this time, was the fact that Malik and Yugi were planning a surprise birthday party for Youko, after an offhand comment from Kaiba who had obviously looked into their mother's past. Secretly Yugi believed he only asked to watch her and Malik go into a panic about how to set up a surprise party in such a short time and about what to get their Mother. The only luck they had was that Youko's birthday fell on a Friday instead of during the week, which meant celebrations could be drug out for as long as they wanted. Yugi had called Beryl one night and arranged for her to take Youko out for a shopping spree or a spa day, something that would get the Motou matriarch out of the Kame Game Shop for a long period of time starting at noon.

Before they knew it, it was Friday morning and Yugi had finally gotten her revenge on Kaiba. She had told him, during their first class, that his job was to pick up Mokuba and Hotaru. The brunette did not find this too be too much of a demand since it had been awhile since he has seen Mokuba since the boy began living at another one of the Kaiba properties to attend the same private school that Hotaru did, which was a good thing since that kept both out of the insanity that had developed with the arrival of Chisis. In t he end Yugi decided that she did not really achieve a true sense of revenge, so she resolved to wait till Kaiba's birthday to get him back with a gag gift.

That brings everything up to speed, but the real action did not happen till the tens began to prepare for the party after school.

Thirteen-year-old Kaiba Mokuba shook his head as he entered the Kame Game Shop, relaxing a bit as he recognized the familiar shelves of the small shop that he missed visiting on a daily basis. He turned to talk to Hotaru, who was also smiling as she also relaxed as the tension from the small car trip melted away, only to see that his older brother had developed a tic in the corner of his eye with the attitude of Hotaru's short, pink haired friend— Tsukino Usagiko, or Chibi-Usa. The girl stood about four feet tall and wore a typical Juuban girl's middle school uniform, blue pleated skirt with a white short sleeved top and a blue sailor collar with a red bow and knee high white socks, with her cotton candy pink hair up in two cones with shoulder length tails and her demeanor screamed 'snob.' "What do you think of this Youko character?" Mokuba asked his older brother, who slipped by both chatting girls.

"She is nice and definitely their mother, her eccentric ways and such give it away." Kaiba remarked with a laugh before he glanced over his younger brother's shoulder, ignoring the glare that Chibi-Usa was leveling at them without a hint of tact. "Watch that annoying girl. She acts a little to much like Mazaki, if you know what I mean." He muttered to Mokuba, making sure to keep his voice low enough that the two girls could not hear him, then he turned and left them alone in favor of going upstairs first.

"That's a bad omen, shit. Well, this ought to be real fun now." Mokuba muttered to himself as he ran a hand through his spiky black hair and than turned to his girlfriend and Chibi-Usa with a smile. "Well, ladies, shall we go on up and greet the others?" he asked cheerfully as Hotaru nodded and Mokuba grinned and bowed a bit to them, in his best imitation of a butler, and turned on his heel and followed his brother's path to the stairs.

The three younger teens entered the living room and just stared at the sheer amount of chaos before them. Jonouchi and Ryou were putting up streamers wherever they could hang them with tape, and having fun from the laughter as they tossed the colorful rolls of paper streamers back and forth over the heads of the others. Zuka and Malik were gathered around a punch bowl in the kitchen, looking much like mad wizards leaning over a potion and commenting on texture and smell as well as looks of the concoction. Yami emerged from the hallway carrying an armful of packages that were well balanced and eventually he carefully deposited them in a corner of the room before making his way back to that hallway, presumably to get the rest. "Did everyone drink a triple espresso today?" Mokuba asked in shock, distracting Ryou who accidentally over threw Jonouchi. The roll of paper streamers flew through the air and accidentally hit Chibi-Usa in the forehead, causing the pink haired pre-teen to let out a sound of pain.

"This is the first party that involves everyone that gathered together since Duelist Kingdom." Jonouchi answered cheerfully, looking rather amused as Chibi-Usa glared daggers at him and a blushing Ryou.

"This event is also for a very special woman." Zuka stated with a smirk as Mokuba frowned, since he did not recognizing the man but he let that go for now since the others trusted him.

"Your brother is taking refuge in here, too. Maybe trying to steal some icing that Yugi is using to ice the cake." Malik added with a chuckle as Mokuba turned to the girls, just then noticing the angry look on Chibi-Usa's face as she kicked the roll of paper streamers away from her.

"The blonde in the school uniform is Jonouchi Katsuya, my brother's boyfriend." He stated as Jonouchi cheerfully waved before he moved forward to retrieve the roll he had missed catching.

"Welcome to our little corner of insanity, hope you aren't too twitchy around chaos and loud sounds." He joked and than made his way to the couch where he sprawled out across it, causing to Ryou shrug and make his way into the kitchen.

"The white haired teen in a school uniform is Bakura Ryou and the blonde is Motou Malik." Mokuba continued as Hotaru waved at the two, who nodded to her with a polite smile. The black haired girl frowned a bit when she noted the odd look they had when they nodded to Chibi-Usa, which prompted her to turn to her pink haired friend to ask why. The sour, pinched look that Chibi-Usa had answered any question Hotaru was about to ask and caused the black haired girl to bite her bottom lip in worry about how this would go over.

"The demented white haired person is Zuka, Bakura's boyfriend." Jonouchi chipped in as Mokuba blinked a few times, jaw dropping a bit as the slightly older white haired man smirked and waved before he picked up a plastic glass and proceeded to spoon some punch into it for a taste test.

"Don't worry, he doesn't bite unless you annoy him." Yami remarked as he entered the living room with the last bit of gifts, which he placed in the corner with the rest.

"He is Saitou Yami, Yugi's fiancée." Mokuba told them as Chibi-Usa looked a bit pale after that introduction, but Hotaru just waved.

"Nice to see everyone is in good health." She stated brightly and moved towards the kitchen, trying to break the tension that Chibi-Usa was causing, and peered around the left side. "Yugi-chan! Come meet my friend, please?" she asked before stepping away from the doorway and a tri-color haired teenage girl emerged in a school uniform with a towel thrown over one shoulder and smudges of food coloring on her hands and a icing bag cradled in her right hand.

"Welcome to our little party, my name is Motou Yugi." She stated with a slight nod, choosing the path of being polite to the newcomer because she was obviously a friend of Hotaru, as Chibi-Usa than put her nose in the air.

"I am Tsukino Usagiko, everyone calls me Chibi-Usa." The pink haired girl stated in a rather arrogant tone as Yugi's eyebrows went up, behind her back Ryou slapped his forehead and was muttering a few things under his breath. Yami and Jonouchi shared a look, knowing full well just who the pre-teen sounded like and emulated, and both resolved to watch her closely.

"I have a cake to finish decorating." Yugi stated as she stalked back into the kitchen.

"Kid, your attitude better change in the next ten minutes." Zuka stated with a glare as Chibi-Usa shot him a challenging look and Hotaru sighed, not liking how this meeting was panning out. "If it doesn't, I'll straighten you out myself."

"I can see why Kaiba looked a bit harassed." Jonouchi dryly added as Mokuba suddenly hoped that Hotaru would not be insulted if his friends decided they all hated her annoying friend.

* * *

Chisis had a reason to miss out on the fun of preparing for the celebration in order to do something that he knew needed to be done, which he had honestly told Yugi why when he told her that he had something to do after school. So she gave him the 'official' mission to intercept Youko and Beryl before they returned to the Kame Game Shop and to stall them for at least an extra five minutes, just in case they were running a bit behind, and this was a good cover for him. Which was why he was standing outside the door to the game shop, shifting from foot-to-foot while scanning the streets for Youko and Beryl. "Chisis!" a voice shouted as his head whipped to the left, nearly giving himself whiplash, a moment before he was engulfed in a hug by a giggling Youko, the bags in her hands resting against his back. "You'll never believe the day I had!" she added and pulled back with a radiant grin as the boy grinned.

"Is it really you?" a red haired woman, who he knew to be Beryl, whispered with hope in her eyes as she gripped the handles of the bags she was carrying a bit tighter. Youko drew back and to Chisis's left as Beryl took a tentative step forward. **"Grandson, you are well… thank the Gods for that."** She honestly told him, slipping into their native tongue of ancient Egyptian, as the boy bit his lip.

**"The same for you, Grandmother, Uncle Diamond told me about the conclusion of your war."** He answered, twiddling his thumbs as he looked away from the red haired woman. A moment later he was hugged by his grandmother, who was whispering thankful prayers that he was safe and apologies for not being there for him or not snapping her son from his depression. **"I hold no ill will towards you, or the others… I still hate my father and I will do so till I have a true reason not to."** He told her as she pulled away from him, tears rolling down her cheeks from the corners of her eyes.

**"Kamenwati (past Malik) and Tomaini (past Ryou) told me what they had done in a letter, the last letter they sent before they died fighting Serenity's bitch lackeys."** She snarled out as her face twisted into a dark look as the boy looked a bit surprised by this admission. **"In that letter, they told me that Zuka and Amun had been killed in the line of duty and that they had to get you to safety before something terrible happened. They told me that Serenity had tapped the Outer Scouts to kill you, my son, and destroy the kingdom…"**

"It doesn't matter any more." Chisis stated in Japanese as Youko perked up a bit, seeing all she did was doing was looking around the area and patiently waiting for them to finish. The black haired woman had decided, as soon as Beryl started the conversation, that being quiet and patient was the best thing to do as soon as the tension spiked a bit. "All is well now. I love it here with Youko-chan and the others, except Yami." He admitted, wrinkling his nose when he said 'Yami.'

"Oh dear." Youko stated as Chisis glanced at her in question. "We will tell you when you are ready for it, since it seems like you have another reason for being out here.

"Ah!" Chisis stated with a blush and opened the door to the game shop with a grin. "Beauty before youth, ladies." He stated as they laughed and entered game shop, but he had a question that would not let him rest— 'What were they hiding from him?'

* * *

It was around the time when Beryl was supposed to bring Youko back from their trip, so Malik had migrated from the punch bowl and kitchen to standing with his ear against the door. He heard voices, than laughter, and the faint sound of steps. "Hide!" he hissed out as Zuka and Yami darted up from the touch and into the kitchen where Yugi and Kaiba were already hiding. Jonouchi was snickering as he ducked behind the recliner in the corner, which left Mokuba to pull Hotaru and Chibi-Usa into the hallway with all the bedrooms and into the first door— Yugi and Malik's room. It was the only place to hide without being too far away from surprising Youko. It would be his decision that would inadvertently put in motion the events that would put the shadow game at the end of Battle City to shame.

As both Hotaru and Mokuba gathered around the doorway, watching the only door on to the floor excitedly, Chibi-Usa looked around the room and sneered at the trinkets and books. One thing that the pink haired pre-teen knew was that she absolutely hated Hotaru's friends and believed that the frail, black haired teen should break all ties with them and Mokuba. That would be the first thing she did as soon as school began on Monday, if Hotaru was truly her best friend the black haired girl would give up her unworthy friends in a heartbeat. With her plans in mind, Chibi-Usa quietly made her way to the foot of Yugi's bed where she spotted an ornate gold box with ancient Egyptian markings sitting on a night table.

The box that Puu had told her about before she made the trip from the future to this time to get the help of the Sailor Scouts to free her Mother from her crystal prison. _What had Puu said about this box?_ Chibi-Usa asked herself as she touched the box, shivering as she felt a call to whatever was inside. _Oh yeah, **'a magical artifact of great power and wisdom is hidden within a ancient Egyptian box in the possession of the rebels that refuse to fall to our peaceful dream.'** That was what she said; maybe this artifact can save Mom and Dad as well as bring down those damned rebels._ She thought gleefully as she carefully opened the box and seen a bundle of silk.

"What in the world?" she heard a woman stated as Hotaru and Mokuba were out the door shouting, 'Surprise!' or 'Happy Birthday, Youko-chan!' with everyone else. Taking a deep breath Chibi-Usa quickly pulled the silk bundle out of the box and unwrapped it, letting the silk fall to the floor, to show a dagger that radiated power. With a smug smirk she pulled the bow off of the front of her shirt and wrapped the dagger before she reached under her shirt and slipped the wrapped dagger into her training bra. With that done, and secured, she slipped out of the room to join the party with a smug smirk.

* * *

After the shouts and endless stream of 'Happy Birthday' wishes to Youko, Malik was carefully observing everyone from where he was leaning against the entrance to the hallway. It made him feel happy that his mother was happy as she hugged a blushing Yugi and than moved on to the others, slowly making her way towards him. Malik noted, with amusement, that Chisis had quickly stashed several shopping bags where Jonouchi had been hiding, as a means of keeping the bags out of the way of the other party goers, before he stalked into the for a safe vantage point. Suddenly a cold shiver went down his back and he glanced over his shoulder and seen a smug Chibi-Usa exiting his and Yugi's room, it was than he knew that something definitely was not right. She brushed past him only to freeze in place when she seen Chisis and Beryl, it was than that the blonde felt the voice in his head stir in agitation. _"No!"_the voice shouted as Malik flinched.

_"What?"_ he demanded as the voice was muttering in ancient Egyptian.

_"I think that she has a Millennium Item… or she stole something that feels like one."_ He answered, not sounding very worried.

_"How would you know?"_Malik asked with a frown as Chisis spotted the pink haired pre-teen and froze in place.

_"Trapped in a part of the Millennium Rod, my item."_He muttered as Malik froze. The dagger part of the Millennium Rod, that was the only thing it could be and if that was the case.

"Shit." He whispered and pushed away from the wall and made for his and Yugi's room just as everything broke down.

"You are supposed to be dead!" Chibi-Usa shouted as she pointed at Beryl, who crossed her arms over her chest and quirked an eyebrow in question. "The scouts killed you, you evil bitch!" she shrieked as everyone one else froze, Jonouchi and Kaiba gravitating towards the kitchen as Yami glared at the pink haired pre-teen while Hotaru gasped and paled.

"Usa-chan!" the dark haired girl protested.

"She is evil, like everyone else here, and they are not good enough for you Hotaru-chan." The pink haired pre-teen protested and motioned to Beryl and than glared at a scowling Chisis. "He is a home wrecker, a member of a family that…" she trailed off as Yugi darted forward and slapped her before she could finish. Youko looked a bit surprised while Hotaru was biting her bottom lip, obviously conflicted, while Zuka snickered and the rest either had an indifferent or amused look.

"You are a spoiled brat of the highest degree that should have been disciplined more by your parents." Yugi snapped as Chibi-Usa looked shocked, holding her stinging cheek. "I will not stand for you insulting anyone in my family when you have no respect nor do you know them. Ever since you arrived you have had this attitude and I let it go, figuring it was nerves of being around a bunch of unknown people, but now I know it is because you are a true brat."

"I will not let you ruin my future! It will be perfect, just like Puu said, and I will use that artifact to make sure you all suffer!" she screamed and darted out of the living room and down into the game shop, moments later they heard the door slam shut.

"Artifact?" Yami asked as Malik ran from his and Yugi's room.

"She took the dagger with Nepha in it!" he shouted as a good many swore as Yugi and Zuka reacted first and took off in pursuit of the girl, Malik following as Yami turned to his mother and than Chisis. He would have followed the three, but he figured it would be best if he stayed behind this once and try to keep things in order since there was no telling when the other three would be back. The one thing he hoped for was that if things got bad, Zuka and Malik would keep his Yugi… his Hikari safe.

"Hotaru, I will apologize for Yugi's action but only because we all seem to share that view of your friend. Hopefully this does not make you resent us in any way." He stated as Hotaru just sighed, looking resigned.

"I understand, Yami-kun, and I am not insulted. This is not the first time I seen her do this, but I find it to be rather troubling that she acted as such in front of my friends outside of school." She replied as Mokuba hugged her, which she gratefully accepted.

"What are we going to do?" Ryou asked as Yami glanced at him and than at his mother.

"We will start at the beginning and ask questions to those that can answer and hope we have an idea of what they will use that cursed blade for." He answered and the party continued from there, but the celebration was a little subdued.

* * *

As Zuka, Yugi, and Malik made it outside of the game shop and down the sidewalk they realized that luck was definitely on their side as they chased the only person with pink hair in cone shaped buns through the streets. After a few minutes of running the pre-teen eventually ducked into one of the allies and zigzagged her way into a less frequented part of the city. The other reason they were lucky was the fact that Chibi-Usa didn't know the area well enough to escape them. "Why did you keep the dagger in the open and in an unlocked place?" Zuka asked Yugi, a bit miffed at her oversight as she snorted.

"No one else knows about it and we never allow customers upstairs, so it was bad luck." She protested as Malik stayed silent. "Anyways, where the hell was I supposed to lock up a cursed dagger with a domineering bitch that has access to magic? It could have been like the end of _Indiana Jones and the Ark of the Covenant_, or something even worse!" she growled out as they skidded around a corner and seen that the street was oddly empty and the pink haired annoyance was standing before a familiar green haired sailor scout and they were both talking as if there was no danger.

"Not again!" Malik whined as they came to a stop ten feet from the two as Chibi-Usa hugged the scout.

"Puu! I stole the artifact you told me about." Chibi-Usa proudly stated as Sailor Pluto smiled down at the girl, obviously proud and this raised the hackles of the two teens and angry Thief King. For some reason this was the last straw for Malik, who suddenly darted forward while Pluto still focused on cooing over Chibi-Usa and how proud she was of the girl. Because of her ignorance she missed the danger that was running at them, which is why when she finally did look up she realized that it was too late.

"Well damn." Zuka stated as Yugi began to clap, impressed. The blonde boy had, against all odds, managed to charge right at the two and land a left hook across Pluto's face and sent the scout back on her butt clutching her cheek as her key resembling staff was abandoned on the ground by her. Chibi-Usa than shrieked in anger and whirled to face him with a glare as he glared down at her and took a few steps back when she tried to hit him, eventually tripping over her own feet and hitting the ground with a cry before she got to her knees.

"Where is a video camera when you need it?" Yugi muttered as Zuka moved forward, intent on causing some damages with his own fists, only Pluto quickly got to her feet and grabbed Chibi-Usa around the waist and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"This is annoying." Zuka growled out as he spat where the two had once been. "First, they destroyed our prosperous and peaceful kingdom because they were jealous and greedy. Second, they assassinate those that do not buy into their flawed views of peace and harmony. Third, they pull this shit!" he roared as Yugi pinched the bridge of her nose as Malik turned to Zuka with a frown.

"What exactly happened in the past?" the blonde asked as the voice in his mind suddenly induced a painful headache, one that made him cringe which drew Zuka's curiosity.

"This isn't a discussion for the middle of a street and this has to tie in with what Chisis told me." Yugi stated as she pulled her hand away from her face, looking more exhausted than she had moments ago. "No more secrets." She added as Zuka understood her implication, Malik was rubbing his temples and focusing on getting the pain of the headache to fade away to a more manageable level.

"I hope Okaasan can forgive us for her ruined birthday." Malik whispered as the three made their way back to the game shop, both anticipating and dreading the conversation they knew would be taking place soon.

"After this we are going on a weekend vacation to make up for this travesty." Malik growled out as they took off running back to the game shop.

* * *

Back at the party, Kaiba realized that whatever was going to happen would be something big and troubling so he bowed out of the rest of the party and took Jonouchi, Mokuba, and Hotaru with him since they did not need to get into the situation either. Yami was leaning against the edge of the doorway into the kitchen, looking a bit pensive while Beryl was uncharacteristically nervous and biting her nails as she sat on the edge of the couch. To her left (in the middle of the couch) sat Youko, who was peacefully eating a piece of cake that had been served after her son and daughter ran out of the shop with Zuka, both curious and worried about her long time friend's odd reaction to what had happened. Ryou and Chisis had both decided to stay in the kitchen and start the dishes just to keep busy and out of the tense atmosphere that had settled in the living room. "If we make her into a doll, can we use pins?" they heard Zuka asked rather loudly as the door of the game shop was slammed shut, causing everyone but Youko to jump in shock, which spoke volumes about how everything was going.

"How about most of the scouts? Could make a killing on E-Bay from the fan-boys and fan-girls." Yugi drawled out as they than made their way up the stairs.

"Considering the pattern, there could be the chance that I have something to contribute." Malik added as the other two snorted in response.

"Test subjects than." Yugi added as Zuka entered the living room, only to turn and look down the stairs.

"This is where you would be telling us not to for some shit like laws and what-not." he stated, his tone a cross between a joke and surprise, while his look was one of suspicion.

"Why would I defend a bunch of preppy teenage girls that are obviously causing us too much trouble? First Chisis being chased by that annoying Pluto bitch because she seen him as a risk to whatever goddamn future she wants to bring about, than the events at the festival and the chess tournament, finally we have the pink haired pain-in-the-ass klepto thinking she is the blasted Princess of Japan?" Yugi snapped out as Zuka took a few steps back and Yugi stalked in, glaring at him while Malik stayed in the doorway that led down into the game shop. "I don't have any issues with Ami nor String's friend, Rei, but the others need a wake up call." With that said she stalked back to her room and slammed the door shut as no one dared to speak a word after that little rant.

"No luck?" Youko asked, after waiting a few minutes and until the silence that settled over everyone became too uncomfortable, as Malik shook his head while biting his lip. He glanced worriedly at the door to the bedroom he shared with his sister; obviously worried about the state of mind she was now in.

"Pluto disappeared with the annoying little klepto. Where's Kaiba and the others?" the blonde asked, more in an attempt to change the subject than anything, as Zuka snorted, which drew attention to the Thief King who plopped down beside Youko on the couch and than stretched out with a lazy grin.

"Malik here knocked the annoying bitch on her ass with a left, so despite losing our sadistic enemy he at least embarrassed her and pissed off the pink haired cretin." He stated as Yami blinked and Chisis began to cackle in the kitchen, obviously pleased with what had happened. "Pharaoh, I think Yugi is under a bit of stress."

"Practically everyone has been since the Sailor Scouts popped up in our lives." Yami gritted out as no one spoke. "Mother, Chisis. I think you both better think long and hard about what you are going to share with us, the time for secrets is over since this matter is now beyond ignoring. You have until I convince Yugi to come out here to figure out what you both will tell us and to also evaluate what will happen if you hide anything important." With that he got up from the recliner and made hit way across the room, not daring to look at his mother who had her face hidden behind her hands. Everyone heard as he opened the bedroom door and stepped in, but the door was not shut entirely.

"I have a feeling that this situation will not be solved like Duelist Kingdom, without blood shed or such." Malik stated as no one moved. Soon after that comment Ryou and Chisis entered the living room, carrying the punch bowl and a stack of plastic cups, and both looked a bit worried but for completely different reasons.

* * *

**A/N: **I am trying to post chapters that could be considered "long" (usually go by word count and the average length is around 5k with a maximum around 7k or 8k). The other reason why these posting have gotten erratic is I have lost track of time (not used to the every other week schedule) and I hit the climax of the Sailor Moon crossover portion of this (they are in Crystal Tokyo now) and have been trying to figure out how to end a few loose threads.

I hope to have another update by April 17... thanks for reading thus far!


	36. Trio: SECRETS REVEALED

**5.** **SECRETS REVEALED**

_In my darkest hours I could not foresee  
That the tide could turn so fast to this degree  
Can't believe my eyes  
How can you be so blind?  
Is the heart of stone, no empathy inside?  
Time keeps on slipping away and we haven't learned  
So in the end now what have we gained?_

_Are they themselves to blame, the misery, the pain?  
Didn't we let go, allowed it, let it grow?  
If we can't restrain the beast which dwells inside  
it will find it's way somehow, somewhere in time  
Will we remember all of the suffering  
Cause if we fail it will be in vain_

_- Our Solemn Hour, _by Within Temptation

_

* * *

_

It had taken Yami five minutes to convince Yugi to leave her room and that was the longest five minutes of Chisis and Beryl's lives, since the weight was totally on their shoulders. Both had emerged and made their way across the living room where Yami sat down in the recliner he had left while Yugi sat on the arm of the recliner, not even flinching when Yami slipped an arm around her waist. "Shall we begin this little story time?" Yami asked as Chisis, who was still kneeling by the punch bowl, refused to look at the couple and Beryl bit her lip.

"Can we please start at the beginning of this particular situation?" Youko suggested as all attention turned to her, but she ignored their surprised looks. "It is obvious we have no time to go back any further." No one was protesting that request, since it was obvious that Youko understood a fraction of what was going on.

"In that case, that means I should begin." Beryl stated before Chisis could start his story, shocking the nervous teenage boy. "All of you present already have an idea who I am, since Ate… Yami introduced me as his mother. I believe this also starts just before Heba died."

"Heba?" Youko asked as Zuka shifted, nervous about the subject of that woman, and tipped his head back to avoid eye contact with everyone while Yami tightened his grip around Yugi's waist and turned to bury his face into her side as she relaxed a bit and drapped her arm around his shoulders in comfort.

"My mother." Chisis spoke up as Zuka's head snapped up to stare at the boy. Malik fell over, having slid to far to the side to listen to the story, but no one looked away from Chisis or Beryl since the discussion just became something like a train wreck that no one could look away from. "She was the Pharaoh Atemu's second wife, his Chosen Wife, and she was murdered." He explained with a stormy looked as Beryl cleared her throat, drawing attention back to her.

"Heba was the only apprentice of Dark Paladin Shadi, who was the oldest and most powerful dark magic practioners in the lands, and she later the apprentice became a master and she was titled Silent Magician, the most powerful white magic practioner." Beryl explained while sitting back, hands folded in her lap. "She was also the missing elder daughter of the neighboring amazon kingdom. This kingdom was the one my bastard of a husband coveted control over, but could never defeat in battle, so he decided to arranged a marriage between the Amazon Queen's daughter and my son."

"So they were set to marry." Ryou pointed out as Zuka snorted.

"Keyword is 'missing,' chibi-hikari. Before Heba's heritage came to light, that was after Nepha's demotion from Chosen Wife to second wife but before her pregnancy, everyone believed that Nepha was the only daughter of the family." The Thief King explained as no one said a word and he turned to a frowning Youko. "Nepha was the youngest of three children, she was also a spoiled brat and the spirit sealed in the Millennium Tauk."

"Ah, the psycho bitch with too many issues to name." Youko stated with a shiver, remembering all too well the spirit that had tortured her several times over a course of ten or more years. "Go on." She added with a sweeping motion of her hand.

"Nepha than attempted to use a deadly drug that prositutes take to abort unwanted pregnancies, since such was dangerous to their trade, on Heba. Unfortunately for Heba her magic was not happy, but she had to make a decision between her life and her children's." the red haired former Queen continued to tell, her hands now forming fists as she tried to keep her voice steady. "When her magic began to be overtaxed, she made the decision to sacrifice her soul to save her children and Chisis was born that day from her sacrifice while his unborn sister was stillborn. Well, we believed she was stillborn since she was not alive when we pulled the children from her weaking body."

"A true mother." Malik muttered as Yugi turned and slid into Yami's lap as he tightened his embrace, burying his face into her hair to hide his tears.

"Atemu fell into a depression so severe that he was just a walking shell, barely eating and barely taking care of himself. Young Chisis was raised by Zuka and the others till age five." Beryl continued, biting her lip now as she mentally debated at how much of the story she wanted to tell. For now she decided that she would not tell them the true ending to the dynasty that her son ruled before he was sealed in the Millennium Puzzle. They were not ready for that and the present event did not have anything to do with that event that had broken her heart and her will to live, those many thousand of years ago. "I had began a war against the Amazons and later against Queen Serenity for the travesty they orchestrated against my family. In those five years I received letters about the suffering kingdom, the deaths of those that were close to my son, and then that Chisis was whisked away from the war for his safety and handed over to Zuka's half-brother— Diamond." She stopped there as Chisis sighed.

"A year after I settled in with Uncle Diamond, a cloaked figure calling himself 'Wiseman' approached Uncle Diamond and the other members of his family. He offered to take everyone away from the war that was tearing the lands a part, the only price would be that Uncle Diamond and the others serve him for a period of twenty years." The teen explained with a defeated look, looking down at his clenched hands. "Twenty years is a long time when the man you promised to is a demanding bastard that has one goal he will not tell to anyone."

"How did you escape that?" Yugi asked as he glanced up with a sad look.

"Uncle Sapphire hid me away so that I did not have to sign my name." He admitted with a hint of an embarassed blush. "He and Uncle Diamond thought that my parents would not be happy with them if I was enslaved to such a man, nor did they trust telling the man I was there. It was my only saving grace."

"How do you know the pink menace, Chibi-Usa was it?" Youko asked, tilting her head to the side as the teen's eyes narrowed and he looked very annoyed.

"I met her by accident in the future he took us to. It was the future of Tokyo, I know that because they were so creative and called the place 'Crystal Tokyo.'" He answered, wrinkling his nose as a few memories of the cold and desolate place popped into his mind. "She is the Princess of Earth and just as stuck-up, her parents are Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask and they are considered the 'perfect' rulers but neither one of them have any personality and the only reason why they rule is because of this pre-destination shit they forced on to everyone."

"So like the bitch Serenity to set things up in such a way, her and her pet manipulation Sailor Pluto." Zuka sneered as a few looked surprised by his statement. "The joys of having a broken family is dealing with half-siblings with issues. Serenity was a controlling bitch when our loving Mother sent Diamond and I away to suffer and be killed as slaves, it is passed down that line of false 'serene' bitches." He growled out as no one dared to ask him about his family lineage.

"Tokyo was revamped to look like a rock candy palace and everything was this utopia where nothing happened. I got back here because this shrouded figure pushed a time key into my hand and told me to go back and make sure things never came to that." Chisis added as he looked up and at Yugi. "And, because of that, I found a true family."

Usually such a phrase would inspire a group hug, but no one moved.

"This means we will have to go forward in time, but how?" Yugi asked as all glanced at her, since she had been silent p to this point. "What? Time Wizard is too dangerous of a gamble."

"Good point." Malik added with a shiver, trying to imagine what would happen if they were not that lucky on the spin.

"I still have a store of power, plus the gods may bless such a journey, and the Shadow Realms thought Zuka and Yami." Beryl stated as none spoke. "We got the power and I can direct you to where a concentration of Serenity's power is, so we would not be shooting in the dark too much."

"Are we willing to take such a risk?" Malik asked as Ryou got to his feet.

"Like hell am I going those two idiots rule the world." The white haired teen stated and nodded to Beryl.

"Not to mention we have to make sure Nepha is taken care of and that this 'Wiseman' character is not a blast from the ancient past that may potentially want something else." Yugi pointed out as Malik snorted.

"Sure, let's do this for the sake of removing Nepha and preventing such a bleak future." He stated with a grin. "To making sure the future is not set in stone."

"Are you sure?" Zuka asked them as the three nodded, to Chisis's shock and fear. "I hope so because if the Pharaoh and I are involved in this little ritual, that means we can't go with you."

"We have to stand on our own sooner or later." Yugi stated as she got to her feet, crossing her arms. "You guys dealt with this pyscho for far too long, it is time that we step up and make sure she is gone for good. On that note, it will take her longer to try and break us since she doesn't know our weaknesses as well as yours." She added as both spirits looked surprised as her statement.

"Off to bed with you all!" Youko stated as she too got to her feet. "We all have a busy morning, too bed!" she stated and shooed everyone off, minus Beryl, which they conceeded to do since she had a point.

"Are you sure you are okay with all of this?" the red haired woman asked, looking a bit afraid, as Youko sighed and pulld her friend to her feet and pushed her towards the hallway.

* * *

In the early morning hours the atmosphere at the Kame Game Shop was heavy and resigned, but only because of the secrets of the past that had been revelaed the previous night. Youko did not sleep at all, her mind a whirl with everything that had come out, so she had decided to watch movies while everyone else went to bed, having gone as far as guiding a drained Beryl to her room. There was a sound of faint footsteps and a pensive Yami entered the living room, fully dressed for the day. He froze when he noticed that someone was up and the fact that Youko was staring at him. "Youko-basan?" he asked as she nodded and motioned for him to sit down on the couch by her as she turned her attention back to the movie she was watching— Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, of all things.

"You do know that if you break my Yugi's heart, no god or goddess in heaven or hell will be able to save you from the pain I will inflict on you… correct?" she asked in a steady tone as he sat straight up, shocked by the cooly deleivered death threat.

"If I do break her heart that I hope that they do not save me, Youko-baasan. I will try my damndest to never make her cry or to hurt her in any way, but you and I both know that there is no such thing as a perfect relationship." Yami stated as Youko pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, glaring at him from the corner of her eye. This in turn made Yami feel a bit uneasy, since he had never faced an overprotective parent before, so he decided to change the topic. "You do know that Zuka nor I nor Beryl will be going with them tomorrow to the future. We will be sitting here in the present, biting our nails…" he continued as Youko turned and glared at him.

"They are stronger than you obviously believe, Yami, and you should know that." She snapped as he frowned, confused. "You are implying that they have room to fail, my sons and daughter do not need such miniscule negative thoughts." He slumped back as Youko did not look away from him, which unnerved the Ancient Pharaoh. "They will succeed and I believe in them with all my soul and heart, so should you." With that and uncomfortable silence fell between them. Unbeknowst to the two Zuka was leaning gainst the wall, across from Yugi's room and just out of view of the two, listening to the discussion.

"What if they have to go head-to-head with the Scouts? Will they be able to go all the way?" he asked as she looked away from him and back to the television screen.

"They will do what they think needs to be done and will accomplish it by any means possible, I trust them." She emphatically told him with a nod. "No one asked Yugi, or Ryou, or Malik what their views are about knowing the future. Even though you are her fiancee, I doubt you know what she thinks of things… hell, I barely know their believes but I have the reason of only being around for a couple months. You lived in her head!" she pointed out as Yami flinched, but did not counter her.

"Well said, Youko." Zuka drawled out as Youkos head whipped around and Yami's eyes narrowed at the Thief King's enterance, having heard enough. "Pharaoh, Yugi handled herself pretty damn good in the fight against Nepha a couple months ago, then Ryou finally came out of his meek shell, and who knows what Malik will bring to the table. Have a little faith, will ya'?" he asked as Youko smiled at him and turned back to her movie as the Thief King sat on her other side. The next hour was spent in silence, watching the final fight take place in the movie when Youko glanced at the clock on the VCR and sighed.

"I guess I will go wake Beryl, you three will need all the time you can to prepare. I'll send my children on the bus." She stated getting to her feet as Zuka reached out and grabbed her wrist in a loose grip.

"Do you consider us your children?" he asked as she chuckled and pulled away, pausing in the doorway to the hallway.

"When you marry you will officially be so, right now you are in that transition stage." With that the woman went off to wake Beryl.

"I thought you hated Heba and I." Yami stated as the credits began to roll and Zuka snickered.

"You are considering Yugi to be Heba?" he asked as the Pharaoh frowned.

"No, but you made it apparent early in our tentative alliance that you hated me and everyone connected to me." Yami remarked as Zuka snorted and looked away.

"Five millenniums of silence and darkness gives a person time to think, but I still hate you because you're the Pharaoh and I don't like government in any way but I have come to terms that it was your father's order that massacred my village. In concerns to Heba, I hated her because she had no personality and was always so damned perfect. Personally, I like Yugi because she likes being imperfect and off the wall and if you screw with her in any way I will slowly destroy your soul." He snapped out and sat back, arms crossed and neither man spoke another word.

"I would never intentionally harm Yugi in any way." Yami growled out, glaring at the Thief King.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Zuka pointed out in a dry tone as the Ancient Pharaoh scowled. "I know that you love her, or else you wouldn't be so obsessed with her protection and happiness, but if you slip up and start treating her like she is Heba I will make you regret it." He added and stalked off into the kitchen.

Three tense hours later, two dark spirits left with Beryl before Yugi, Malik, and Ryou were pulled out of bed by a nervous Youko who prodded them to getting ready before the bus arrived. Chisis was lurking in the shadows of the hallway, clad in pajama pants with a baggy t-shirt with a black robe, trying not to let the tears that gathered in the corners of his eyes fall as he witnessed the heart breaking sight before him. In reality he did not want to risk losing them, his new family, to a future that would not be or to the family that he loved till it was warped by the vision of a man that knew how to manipulate people. It bad his chest ache when he seen Yugi, clad in a pair of black jeans with a purple-and-white stripped turtle neck under a black t-shirt that declared 'I used to care but now I take a pill for that' with a black leather belt and a familiar pouch around her waist, packing her messenger bag with things that they may need. He really didn't want her to go!

Ryou, who was wearing a pair of simple black pants with a black turtleneck, carefully tucked his dueling deck into an extra pouch, which Yugi had lent him, and than clipped that on to a belt loop. Zuka had left a prepared ragged back pack for him, since the Thief King decided that he would not let them go without materials he approved of for a fight, and that sat at his feet. Running a hand nervously through his spikey white hair and glanced over at Malik, who had went with faded blue jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt that read 'Stand back! I'm going to try Science' on the front with a stick figure holding beakers, who was hugging a sobbing Youko.

Chisis took in a deep breath and darted from the shadows and hugged Yugi, burying his face in her shoulder as everyone else looked surprised by this. "Do you have the two God Cards?" he asked her as she looked a bit taken back by his question, but than smiled fondly and reached down to the pouch on her hip.

"Nearly forgot about them, but Yami slipped them into my deck before he left." She stated as Chisis pulled back and reached into his robe pocket, pulling out another card.

"Now you have the full set." He stated as Yugi accepted the card, looking down at the image in surprise. The image displayed was of a golden creature that looked to be metal with the head of an eagle and its claws and wings visiable. "A srouded figure gave that to me before I came to the present, said that I would know what to do with it when the time came."

"In the words of Jonouchi, that sounds ominous and cliched." Malik remarked as Chisis blushed and hugged Yugi again, which she returned by wrapping her right arm around his shoulders while tucking the card into her deck with her left hand.

"Things will turn out all right, Chisis, we'll be back before you know it and we can than have a better birthday party for Youko." She stated as he cracked a smile, but it was sad.

"How about before my birthday?" the younger teen asked, sounding rather hopeful.

"Sure!" Malik stated as the boy turned to the grinning blonde. "When's your birthday?"

"October 31." Chisis answered as Ryou flashed two thumbs up.

"Consider it done." The white haired teen stated as the three ruffled his hair or hugged him before approaching Youko and hugging her one last time, before she handed Yugi a piece of paper with written directions to Beryl's house on it. With heavy hearts they picked up their bags and than proceeded to check the contents again, out of paranoia. With a wave they slipped on their shoes—well, boots (in Yugi's case), combat boots (in Malik's case), and worn tennis shoes (in Ryou's case)— and were out the door as Youko rushed over and glomped on to Chisis while sobbing about her children going off into the dangerous future.

* * *

The bus trip was tense and boring, but the three arrived in Juuban and were stalking through the streets on their way to Beryl's residence. "Motou-san!" a familiar voice shouted as the three paused outside the Crown Arcade when a frantic Mizunio Ami and Hino Rei.

"We suspected you would be around this area, more so when that pink haired brat came back proud because of something she did." Rei stated as she brushed some dust from her jeans before nervously fixing her zipped up brown coat while Ami fiddled with the hem of her knee length dark blue dress or the buttons of her gray, wool overcoat. "Your descriptions came up in her 'epic' tale."

"Why aren't you with your friends?" Ryou asked, more curious than annoyed, as Ami blushed.

"Can we discuss this someplace private?" the blue haired genius asked, looking around.

"We are on our way to Ba-chan's, why not tag along?" Yugi asked as both froze for a moment before nodding and they set off at a quick pace towards more residental area of Juuban.

"You do have a good idea of what is going on, correct?" Ami asked as Malik bit his lip.

"Some things came to light last night, most concerning why you were heading to the bus stop to Domino." The blonde answered as Rei crossed her arms and bowed her head.

"We had a split of ideals with our other friends." Rei admitted in an even tone, obviously trying to keep her emotions in check. "They bought into what was told to us by the pink haired menace and what was revealed does not go well with my, our, views." The shrine maiden admitted as they continued down the streets, Yugi leading while occasionally looking down at the directions had Youko had handed her.

"What views are in question?" Yugi asked, making a left turn as they followed her, just as Ryou began to whistle a slow and dark tune.

"We do not believe that the future is set in stone and that by knowing it we doom ourselves." Ami answered as they walked for a block before making a right turn. "What I mean is we were told that we gave up our lives, our families, our dreams, and our aspirations to someone. We had no choice because of what happened in the past and what was brought to the present." That was heavy to all as Yugi came to a stop in front of a typical, two-story house with a fenced in yard.

"What would you say if I told you that we are going to follow your friends and put an end to whatever is going on?" Yugi told them, tucking the directions back into her pocket and facing the two girls. "Ryou, Malik, and I are going to go after them and set what we can right."

"I hope you do." Rei stated as she pulled out three good luck charms that the Cherry Hill Temple usually sold, handing one to each of the three from Domino City. "Those are for good luck and to know that we support what you will be doing."

"What about our discussion?" Ami asked as Malik smiled at her.

"You already told us what you were about to do, all we can ask is that you believe in us." He answered as Ryou nodded in agreement.

"You are welcome to come in with us and get to know Beryl-san on better terms." Ryou offered as both nodded and followed the trio into the house, resolving themselves to mend a broken bridge that was broken long before they were born.

* * *

The three heard the front door open and than shut and moments later they heard several pairs of feet coming up the stairs in front of the door and towards the guest room they were preparing for the transport ritual. Zuka sat back against the wall, under the window, while Yami was sitting in a corner looking much like a broken doll. "We have all that is possible finished." Beryl whispereed as the door opened and five teenagers entered. "Are you three ready to face the great beyond?"

"As ready as ever, Ba-chan." Malik responded as the two girls behind them looked nervous about being in the presence of the red haired former Negaverse Queen.

"One moment." Zuka drawled as he got to his feet and shuffled over to Ryou. "You'll be needing this, chibi-hikari." He stated taking the Millennium Ring from around his neck and slipped it over a surprised Ryou's head. "Considering your present powers are not strong enough, or controlled enough, to fully protect you this Ring will allow you to draw on me and my own powers. If things get too out of hand, I'll rip through hell to save your ass." With that he kissed Ryou which causied the girls, minus Yugi, to blush bright red.

"I have a feeling they will want a little 'personal time' when this is over." Malik dryly commented, the voice in his head snorting and muttering something, as Yugi snickered.

"By then everyone will be pairing off, I think Strings wants to kidnap Chisis to have her wicked way with." Rei commented, blush still prominent across her cheeks. "She has plots for that one."

"Yugi." Yami stated as he got up and pulled the Millennium Puzzle from round his neck. "Same as what the Thief said, this will be a link to my powers since you are just figuring your own out and I would feel more at ease if you wore it. Make sure to bring everyone back." The Ancient Pharaoh told her with a smile as he mirrored Zuka's previous move and slipped the Millennium Puzzle around her neck.

"Thank you, Yami." Yugi stated as she kissed him on the cheek. "I'll save the kiss for our return." He pouted as Malik pulled the Millennium Rod from the pocket of his sweatshirt and sighed.

"I feel so left out." He muttered as Ami and Rei looked a bit mischevious and ambled over to flank him. Ami took the Millennium Rod as Rei gave a dramatic sigh.

"You will be needing this." Ami stated handing the Rod to him as he blinked.

"And a kiss for good luck, our knight in armor." Rei added as both kissed him on the cheek at the same time, causing him to blush and the rest to laugh at the dark blush that colored his cheeks.

"Now that's a well wishing." Zuka stated as the girls looked innocent.

"Now, let us begin." Beryl stated, her serious tone killing the light atmosphere as everyone turned serious. Yami smiled sadly at his lover and motioned for them to step into the middle of the room while Ami and Rei stayed by the door, out of instinct and logic since they had no idea what was going on. "Son?"

"Of course, Mother." Yami stated bowing his head as Zuka stalked around the group to stand by the two girls. Beryl took a deep breath and gacefully fell to her knees with her head bowed.

_**"Gods of the Shadow Realms, the honored ancients that blessed our homelands long ago."** _Yami intoned in Egyptian, raising his arms up as the three teens watched him. The Ancient Pharaoh closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. _**"I ask for your aide in our endevor to send these three warriors to the future that a foolish mortal has tried to set in stone, circumventing your powers. Please belss them with your guidance…"** _his voice trailed off as the shadows in the room came together around the three teens and dispelled moments later and they were no longer present.

The only thing with such a ritual such as calling on the gods to aide, was that one never knew if the gods gave their blessing or took a sacrifice. This is what put the three Egyptians on edge…

_

* * *

_

**A/N:** Well, if most have noticed, I am getting scattered with updates and this is not intentional. First off, my main issue is real life killing my urge to write and second, Crystal Tokyo is mentally breaking me because I am attempting to either make Crystal Tokyo a bit more realistic or trying to give a reason for what happened in the manga. The other part of the second issue is figuring if I am focusing too much on filler, but I defend the fact that most of this is a need to know deal if not boring. I apologize ahead of time.

Hopefully the Sailor Moon section of this turns out better then most out there...


	37. Trio: CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES

**6. CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES**

_I've had it up to here, you know your end is near._

_You had to have it all,  
Well have you had enough?  
You greedy little bastard,  
You will get what you deserve.  
When all is said and done,  
I will be the one to leave you in the misery and hate what you've become._

_Intoxicated eyes, no longer live that life.  
You should have learned by now, I'll burn this whole world down.  
I need some peace of mind, no fear of what's behind.  
You think you've won this fight, you've only lost your mind._

_Heaven help you._

- _Had Enough_, by Breaking Benjamin

* * *

One word best described the future that Sailor Pluto and the former Queen Serenity manipulated into being— disturbing. Six-story tall, clear crystal pieces jutted from the cityscape and was scattered around buildings while a crystal palace had formed in the very center of Tokyo, destroying a once beautiful and bustling metropolis and the city was silent as an ancient graveyard.

When Neo-Queen Serenity and Neo-King Endymion first appeared before the subjugated people of all continents but Africa, they both claimed that the world was now an utopia where there would be no pain or suffering from war and that everyone would live in peace. Such a lie. The army became executioners and silenced any that dared to speak out, the police were corrupt and only adhered to keeping people loyal. This all took place before the arrival of the Black Moon family, before the planet of Nemesis eclipsed the Earth's Moon, and was but a continuation of the suffering because the rulers did not attempt to do the best for those they ruled. All the people heard were sweet words from the rulers and their guardians, but they passed nothing to help the people pull themselves up from the previous strife. After the first attack of the Black Moon family, thing went to hell rather quickly because the army was faced by an enemy that did not fear them.

Than, from the Black Moon's revolution, the seeds of the Resistance Movement blossomed in Crystal Tokyo. This movement was eventually funded by a kingdom that sat to the far West of Crystal Tokyo, sprawling across the Sahara Desert to the Mediterranean Sea and based around the Nile River, called Thebes.

Presently a figure shrouded in darkness and mystery was lurking in an alley that within sight of the Crystal Palace gates, waiting for something to happen. This person was wearing a worn black leather overcoat with a hood that was buttoned from the high collar to mid-thigh and showed worn black pants and combat boots held together by duct tape and equally worn leather gloves. The lone feature that drew the attention of both ally and enemy was the pristine white mask, painted red lips curled into a permanent smile. The silence was than broken by a shriek of fear, or pain, as the figure tilted it's head to the side when the struggle came into the figure's line of sight.

A floating woman in a scandalous black dress with three large green gems forming a simple necklace around her throat, who the figure easily identified as Emerald of the Dark Moon family, had a child suspended five feet above the ground and was strangling the annoying brat, the figure identified as Princess Usagiko, with… "Stretch Armstrong hands? That's screwier than the usual." The figure muttered in a dark, gravelly voice.

"Chibi-Usa!" the figure heard a blonde in an blue, red, and white Sailor Scout uniform shriek.

"Venus Love Chain Encircle!" the semi-familiar voice of Sailor Venus shouted as the chain of hearts came from no where and distracted Emerald enough to let Princess Usagiko go as a younger Sailor Jupiter moved and caught the annoying princess while a younger Tuxedo Mask moved between the two and Emerald, arms out to protect them from any incoming attack.

"They are messing with forces that no one can control without consequences." He figure muttered, crossing it's arms while leaning back against the cold brick wall. As things were getting boring and the figure turned to head down the alley a spark of familiar power made it stop. The familiar power far outstripped the figure's own and this caused the figure to stiffen and whip around to continue watching the struggle that was still taking place since the spark of power was forming there. Sailor Moon was on the ground in shock and near tears while the other younger Sailor Venus was struggling to keep control of the heart-whip that was around a cackling Emerald.

"Tuxedo: The Smoking Bomber!" she heard the past self of the King bellow as he darted between Venus and Emerald, his attack blowing Emerald up in a blaze of fire.

"I doubt that was the power." The figure dryly told itself in disgust, the building of that attack was a candle against the spark of power that now felt like a bonfire to the figure. The figure noted two others arrived on the scene— one was a tall man with gray-white hair that was cut below his ears wearing a white ornate jacket and matching pants with a white cape pinned to the shoulders of the jacket but the other was floating a foot off the ground in a black hooded rob and was hunched over a crystal ball like a crone or ancient shaman. The figure did not mind Diamond, who had a mind and wit that made him feared among the army ranks and earned him the grudging respect of the Resistance, but the other everyone knew as Wiseman, who was hated by everyone for his merciless tactics and lack of care for anyone or anything in his command.

Neither were the source of the power that had piqued the figure's curiousity, which was slowly starting to annoy the figure.

"Do you like the renovations to the thirtieth century, Sailor Moon? How about you Venus, Jupiter, and Tuxedo Mask?" the husky tones of Prince Diamond, the leader of the Black Moon Family, asked as Sailor Moon glanced up from her useless scepter.

"Watch out below!" a voice shouted as three teenagers crashed down on top of Sailor Moon, causing everyone to freeze in place.

* * *

Ryou, Yugi, and Malik had held on to their things for dear life as they felt like they were being drug underwater by something. The three had no chance to scream, to protest, to ask the possibilities of surviving this unofficial suicide mission but that was probably for the best because it gave them no chance to talk themselves out of going to the future to deal with the stolen Millennium object. When the feeling of being underwater faded they felt the chilled air and heard voices, which meant their journey was over. "Watch out below!" Ryou shouted, probably out of reflex and amusement, and all three fell on top of someone in a classic dog-pile.

"I wonder if this is how clothes feel when they are in the rinse cycle." Malik muttered as he crawled form the pile and got to his feet as Ryou sat on the ground and shook his head a few times. The blonde glanced over his shoulder and watched as Yugi got off of their cushion, now identified as a whining Sailor Moon, and brushed some dust from her attire while adjusting her bag.

"I think we interrupted something." Yugi pointed out as the two boys turned and seen all the eyes on them. It was a little unnerving, seeing how they only recognized the three from their time period and the ghost of an older Tuxedo Mask in a lavender color…

"That color is very unbecoming on you, reminds me too much of Pegasus." Ryou commented as he pointed at the still shocked spirit of the older Tuxedo Mask, yet no one moved or even said something.

"What are you three doing here?" Sailor Venus demanded with her hands on her hips as Prince Diamond and Wiseman watched the events unfolding.

"Finishing up some unfinished business." Yugi snapped as she stalked forward a few steps so that she stood toe-to-toe with the blonde scout. "Plus that little brat you rescued from being strangled stole something from us and we are here to ensure that the situation is taken care of."

"I stole nothing!" Chibi-Usa shouted as she huffed, glaring at the three Domino City teens from the protective arms of an equally annoyed Sailor Jupiter. "I took what was rightfully mine."

"I say we make her into a voodoo doll." Malik muttered as Yugi snorted and Ryou was thoughtfully looking down at his hands. "That is doubtful, since Pluto was in on the deal and we did chase you down with good reason. Hand it back over and we will leave this pathetic future to our content present."

"Or you could be taken care of now." The spirit stated with a venomous glare, eyes drifting down to stare at the Millennium Puzzle around Yugi's neck and then over at the Millennium Ring around Ryou's which meant that he obviously recognizing the importance of the items. "Guards!" he bellowed as Diamond and Wiseman decided to fade into the background, since the attention was no longer on them and the appearance of the three teens required a little bit more observation, and several soldiers came running from the palace with their guns drawn. "They are a part of the movement to destroy Crystal Tokyo…"

"In our defense, you can't destroy something that technically doesn't really exist." Yugi sarcastically stated as she let a hand drift to where her dueling deck was on her belt, lifting the top and pulling the cards out as Ryou did the same. Malik drew the Millennium Rod and took a deep breath to ready himself for the fight, hoping that he had an ace up his sleeve like his sister and friend.

"What are you doing?" Sailor Venus asked the spirit of the older Tuxedo Mask, obviously shocked at the reaction to the three teens appearance, as the soldiers took aim as Yugi and Ryou each drew a card from the top of her deck and carefully glanced down at it.

"Trap Hole." Yugi whispered as the soldiers fell into the hole that appeared beneath them, than it closed up as none dared moved. The Sailor Scouts, Tuxedo Mask, Chibi-Usa, and the spirit of the older Tuxedo Mask all looked shocked by the oddly violent move and the fact that Yugi indirectly killed several soldiers, but also the lack of any emotion on the teenage girl's face.

"Hand over what that pink haired brat stole from us and we will leave peacefully." Malik growled out as he brought the Millennium Rod up, close to using its power to bend the Sailor Scouts to his will.

"You call the death of seven soldiers peaceful?" the spirit spat as the scouts and Tuxedo Mask did not move, a bit shaken by the display of power and hostility that not even Beryl had dared to show.

"You called them with the intent to kill us for just being here, therefore we claim self-defense." Yugi stated as she tucked the card at the bottom of her deck and Ryou eyed the remaining guards, who were now trembling in fear due to what they had just witnessed.

"Man-eater Bug." Ryou stated calmly as the vicious green bug appeared and attacked the shocked soldiers, eventually going after the younger Sailor Scouts, as the three Domino teens made their escape.

* * *

The figure remembered stories of the first Thebes rulers before they sacrificed themselves to protect the continent of Africa and its inhabitants from the magical cleansing and later the armies of Crystal Tokyo. The myth of the dark power that they sacrificed themselves to for those that accepted their rule, the martyrs to why the world should not be a perfect utopia. Pushing those fantastical stories and chest-tightening memories to the side the figure decided to focus on the growing curiosity concerning the three teens that were now present. Subconsciously the figure knew that this was the event that they had been waiting for and that their goal of defeating the Neo-King Endymion and Neo-Queen Serenity was closer than ever. When the three ran from the fight, leaving a insect looking creature behind to distract those present, the figure noted with a chuckled that they were running right towards it's position in the alley. "This way!" the figure hissed out, turning on it's heel and running down the alley as all three came to a stop and darted into the alley without pausing to think about the possible ramifications of their split-second decision.

The figure led them through a maze of back alleys and buildings and then things around them rippled and they were no longer surrounded by the brick and crystal buildings of Crystal Tokyo but a place that looked much like a ghost town— forgotten by time. It was eeriely silent, not even a breeze to rattle anything loose. "What the hell was that?" Malik asked as Ryou bit his lip and glanced around.

"Warping, it is a method of magical travel that my uncle developed after the world thawed and the Sailor Scouts set up show as monarchs." The figure stated in a bitter tone, setting off down the street at a more sedate pace as the three fell into step behind the figure. "Don't worry, they rarely enter this place because it is a blot on their perfect record. After they destroyed all life here, for being evil, it was removed from the map and declared an official No-Man's Land."

The landmarks were rather familiar to Ryou, who grabbed Yugi and forced her to come to a stop, and Malik froze in his tracks after a few steps. Yugi was silent, biting her lip, as she tried to steady the fact that she knew why Ryou was gripping her wrist hard enough to leave marks. "We are in Domino City!" Ryou whispered in shock as the figure whirled around, frozen in surprise.

"The Scouts didn't fair well in Domino either, in the our time." Malik wryly stated as Yugi snorted.

"He decked Pluto and they were insulted every other time we met, minus Mars and Mercury." Yugi answered as the figure was silent. "Such an egotisical group… it makes sense, in a warped way."

"The original Mars and Mercury formed the Resistance cells here before I arrived, they told me stories of my parents and relatives. They refused to leave this hellish place because they wanted to right the mistake they were too blind to stop in the beginning, with that determination they died fighting." The figure stated as the three teens were silent, since there is nothing a person can say to do justice to such determination. "We better continue on before night falls." With that the figure turned on its heel and set off as they followed.

"If this is the future, I say we murder them to prevent it from happening." Malik muttered as Ryou nodded.

"I will make dolls of them and let's see them try." The white haired teen agreed with a sage nod and both glanced at the unofficial leader of their group for any chiding or such. Instead, they realized that Yugi was nodding in agreement with their statements, which meant that the scouts were truly proving to be more trouble then they were worth. Turning their attention back to the matter at hand, the walk was tense and silent and there was nothing to say about the dead landscape. On that note, they also found it a bit awkward to be following a figure that the three did not know.

"The game shop!" Yugi suddenly stated as she came to a stop and pointed to the small, weathered place that she called home. "It seems that everything comes back to Domino for us." She added and detoured towards the shop, Malik following and pulling Ryou along with him as the figure paused.

"What the hell?" it muttered and stormed after them, cursing their short attention spans. The figure entered the shop and seen that the three did not disturb the shelves or the counter at the back, but made their way upstairs, so it followed them up. The living room looked was covered in dust and the furniture was moth eaten but what really irked the figure out was the fact that the three were no where to be seen, until something crashed. With a sigh the figure stalked towards the hallway and seen that the first door was open and the three were poking around the room.

Ryou blushed as he backed away from the bookshelf he had touched, causing the hold relic to crumble into dust, and causing Malik to hit him upside the head. "Sorry." The white haired teen muttered as the blonde sighed. Yugi ignored them in favor of approaching the ornate gold box, the one that the Millennium Puzzle pieces had been in when she first received it, that was sitting on the table at the foot of the bed and not touched by any dust.

"What is so important about this place?" the figure demanded as Malik and Ryou both glanced at the figure. Before they could answers Yugi had picked up the golden box and moved away from the table to sit on the floor with it.

"Everything, to us at least. This is our home city, this is where Malik and I live and I think Ryou adopted it as home since he is around a lot." She answered as Malik sat by her and Ryou followed, curious about the box. The figure just sighed and crossed it's arms in annoyance while Yugi removed the lid of the box to show a collections of folded papers still in pristine condition. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Yugi picked up the first piece and carefully unfolded it, weary of what it may hold. She then took a deep breath and proceeded to read the letter out loud.

_To who ever finds this box: _

_All you need to know about me is that my name is Yugi and I have lived in Domino City, I first encountered the Sailor Scouts of Juuban district because of an unfortunate accident that utterly destroyed all chances of a future. Years later the Shadow Realms, specifically the Gods that reside in it, suddenly pulled myself and several others into the safety of its power and darkness as the world was frozen over because of a power unknown to us. After this we began to carefully watch the unknown magic change the world into a twisted parody of its former life and glory, I assume you have seen the world around you and will not bore you with details you already know. _

_Eventually we began to observe the world a bit more when Sailor Moon suddenly awakened and brought about what their history now calls the 'Great Reawakening.' Since that point, the Sailor Scouts willingly threw their innocent façade of dealing justice in favor of taking control over the planet through any means possible, going as far as to implicating methods that would have made even the hardened dictator of our time squeamish. It was then that we have decided to step in and try to save all that we could, using our abilities to take those willing back to where life began. Back to where our power will always be the strongest. We did this because it was dangerous for us to remain in the stronghold of our enemy without aide or permanent protection, but we had more to think about then just ourselves and it is for the better that we abandon Domino City for them._

_This decision was made for us by the original Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars, Ami and Rei respectively, told us to leave with those they were trying to protect. We did as they asked since their hearts weighted true. That is how we came to be back in the heart of Egypt, actually living in the resurrected ancient city of Thebes thanks to a gamble on Time Wizard. The kingdom has been thriving ever since it was established, we are forever thankful for the aide of the Gods in the Shadow Realms since they helped smooth out the transitions. It was by luck that we had developed and setup a permanent shield over Africa and the Sinai Peninsula by time the false ruling order of Neo-Queen Serenity began her 'Great Purification.' The people were grateful for it when they found out what happened after a scouting report, that those that did not fall to Serenity's Poison were automatically killed and those that fell to the power became drones to the 'perfect Utopia.'_

_As I write this letter, my life is rapidly fading. History has, ironically, repeated itself and it seems that Silent Magician Heba's fate has become my own. Lucky for me my daughter is almost ready to be born and I have been fighting off the effects of Neo-Queen Serenity's poison for close to two months now, a disgusting gift from a traitor that wanted to ensure that the Thebes Royal line never continued. I really don't want to leave my darling daughter alone in this world, but it is out of my hands since I am so tired. The only comfort I have right now is that I am leaving my child in the capable hands of my beloved brother, Malik, and his husband. I wish my husband had survived to see her birth, but only if the circumstances were better. It would be cruel for him to see his wife die, again, by another's venom._

_To Motou Benefrit: Yugi went into labor before she could finish her letter to place in this box and after midnight she gave birth to a healthy and beautiful baby girl. She said that this child would have been the best birthday gift to her husband, had he survived, and in honor of him she named the child after her husband's mother— who was the first to fall as a hero in the first war between Thebes and Crystal Tokyo. It was the first time in years that Yugi actually smiled and broke down in tears, and it was because of you Benefrit. She was so happy to know you were healthy and alive, so happy that she got to hold you and knew you would be safe. As I write this Malik is already making sure she is buried with her husband in the tomb that Shadi has always guarded. We are sorry we did not prevent this bleak future and maybe one day you can forgive us, but there hasn't been a day that we do not regret being passive._

_The only regret we have is not being able to tell you about what is hidden within the darkness, since we do not know if you will have a chance to return to your parents roots. Never forget the game we taught you and always remember that if you give up freedom for perfection you deserve to suffer. Do not forget your inner strength and do not forget that they will always be watching you and always be proud of you no matter what happens._

* * *

**A/N:**The Shrouded Figure belongs to a friend of mine, Itooshi, during a joking session a couple months back. In reality The Shrouded Figure came from a glitch in a Facebook App. called "Mousehunt." Anyways, I have hit a rut with Trio... and about everything else in my life, but it has been a year (April, I believe) since I started rewriting the WMHH universe to be better (in my opinion, at least). Due to this rut I will now try and update once a month, which is the most I can offer since I haven't touched Trio in close to a month and half now... I think.

The other bad news is I have been trying to figure out the draw to Stephanie Meyers "Twilight" series. Upon reading the first book (titled "Twilight") my brain went on strike and then on vacation. I hope to return to the dark future that is Crystal Tokyo soon, or else S2Teennovelist will hunt me down and make sure I work on it.

Heh... hopefully this chapter wasn't too confusing. If it was I will go abck and try adn clear up several things. Other then that I hope the Sailor Moon crossover is working out better (and original) since it is a filler arc in place just to introduce Yami Marik and also to ensure the death of Nepha. Just thought I'd hammer that point in.


	38. Trio: BLACK QUEEN TAKES WHITE ROOK

* * *

"What are your names?" the figure hoarsely demanded, drawing a gun from inside of its coat, as the three teenagers jumped from the sudden movement. They stared down the barrel of the gun at the figure, oddly calm but that was because they each had been enough death threat situations that they learned not to panic. Then again the threat of being banished to the Shadow Realm was a bit more frightening then a bullet— death by bullet versus torture for eternity in darkness. For a couple minutes no one moved, the teenagers not wanting to risk being shot and the figure because it was unsure of what to do now.

"I am Bakura Ryou, the blonde is Motou Malik, and the unofficial leader of our trio is Motou Yugi." Ryou stated as his friends waved when their names mentioned, mentally debating on the chances of turning the figure into a doll before it could get a shot off. He discarded that idea as too stupid and suicidal, one that Zuka would hit him over the head for even considering, and decided it was best to play to his strengths and stay non-threatening. "Before you ask, we came here from the year 2009."

"How did you know to come to this time? Better yet, this exact year?" the figure snarled as the hand holding the gun began to tremble a bit.

"Two friends of ours gave us a warning about what the Scouts were planning on doing." Yugi answered with a thoughtful look, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth as she looked away from them. "Chisis did not really give us much to go off of, just that he came from the same time period as the menace and that a mysterious figure saved him." She added and turned back to stare at the figure, who lowered the gun. Malik let out a sigh of relief as he ran his hands through his hair and tipped his head back while muttering prayers of thankfulness to the Gods and Goddesses.

"He actually did it." The figure stated in shock, holstering the gun. The teens were confused by the figure's decision, but did not have time to dwell on it since the figure let out a bark of laughter that caused them to jump in shock for the second time in ten minutes. "Chisis, you displaced pain-in-my-ass, you actually did it!" the figure crowed twirling around in circles, muttering something about being 'proud' and 'boxing ears,' as the three teens carefully edged together so they could whisper while cautiously watching the slightly insane figure.

"How do we always manage to gather the slightly off-kilter nut jobs?" Ryou asked as Yugi reached out and hit him upside the head. "What?" he asked with a glare, rubbing the back of his head, as Yugi pursued her lips together and narrowed her eyes in warning, which made him gulp.

"Are you sure we should be trusting this person? Seems to have a couple bats missing from the belfry." Malik added as Yugi pinched the bridge of her nose and Ryou snorted. Their comments did not draw the figure's attention, since it was still muttering to itself.

"Chisis has already changed things for the better. All it took was his presence in the past, even if he didn't really know everything that was happening here beyond the obvious." The figure whispered, bringing both gloved hands up to rub the back of its covered neck. "A minor victory in the long war, but one that will have more weight then if we could successfully storm the palace and kill the Queen."

"Yugi." Malik drawled out as he poked Yugi in the side, since she had yet to say anything and her hand had not left her face. "This is the only time that we actually managed to mentally break someone who didn't have a prepared monologue to bore us to death with." No one could argue with that.

"Can't we cut this person a little slack?" Yugi pleaded, valiantly trying to ignore the urge to hit Malik upside the head. "Think about the letter we read, that person has been walking a fine edge between sanity and insanity since he or she lost everyone to something they call Neo-Queen Serenity's poison. How would you react to finding out some hair-brained plan of yours worked for the better?" she asked, letting her hand drop into her lap as her friends looked ready to hit her upside for injecting some logic into their brief talk.

"I really hate it when you do that." Ryou dryly told her as the figure turned to them and froze, which caused the teens to lean away from one another.

"Did he tell you that I saved him from being captured and killed?" the figure asked them in a rather raspy tone, the three teens nodded as the figure sighed and crossed its arms. "He was being attack by the sadistic Sailor Venus just before the Queen Bitch went into her magical coma, since her precious crystal could not save them this time. I shoved the experimental version of our Time Key into his hand and told him to change the past to save our future. I took the full brunt of that hag's most powerful attack to give him that opening…" the figure trailed off, bringing a hand up to touch the right side of the mask.

"Experimental?" the three asked in unison as the figure let its hand drop to the side.

"We tried to replicate the unknown technology that Sailor Pluto had, the means that allowed the pink haired bitch use to go back into the past. We never really had a chance to test it, since we didn't know if it would last for a round trip, and at the time it seemed like the perfect time." The figure explained, failing to hide the fact that it was a bit embarrassed.

"That sounds like something Kaiba would do, life threatening fight or not." Yugi told Ryou, who brought hand up to cover his mouth and resulted in a series of weird sounds because he did not want to laugh out loud. After that a rather uncomfortable silence fell over the room, since it was obvious the topic was not one anyone wanted to discuss yet no one could think of a question to turn the tide of the conversation.

Luckily for them, the rumbling of thunder in the distance reminded them that they were not in a place that could survive a storm of any magnitude. "We have lingered her long enough, we best head back to headquarters where it is safer." The figure stated with a sigh, watching as the three teens carefully placed the old papers back in the ornate box before they returned it to where it had been sitting on the table at the foot of the bed.

"Why are you helping us?" Malik asked as he locked arms with his sister and friend.

"You have no reason to betray me or my own and the monarchy lacks the brains to attempt and place a competent spy in our ranks." With that the figure led them down the stairs and out of the Kame Game Shop. "If you do try to betray us, time-travelers or not, we will make sure no one finds your bodies." The person cheerfully told them before setting off down the street towards the nearest intersection, the three trailing after it.

"If this turns into a darker version of _Hogan's Heroes_, I am throwing in the towel." Yugi hissed to her brother, who ignored the comment. The one thing they all agreed on, without it being said, was that they would change this future or die trying to prevent it.

* * *

**7. BLACK QUEEN TAKES WHITE ROOK**

_When you close your eyes  
Mementos of summer will tease your mind  
Like drizzle after noon clears the air  
When the winter grows you're glad you remember_

_I am a man without a mystery  
I will embrace the coldest winter breeze  
I'm still the guardian of our history  
I still believe that she will come to me_

_Someday we may come to peace  
And reach beyond, behind the lies  
And I will await you until I close my eyes  
Close my eyes, close my eyes_

- _Memento Mori_, by Kamelot

* * *

The figure had stopped at the intersection and expertly pried the manhole cover up and motioned for them to climb down into the sewers, which was one of the rare few places they had never been. Despite their curiosity, the figure drew a flashlight from its overcoat and flicked it on before leading them through the labyrinth of stone and metal corridors. It took roughly fifteen minutes for them to make it to the outskirts of an underground city, which had lanterns and varying types of lighting lining the walls. The figure came to a stop just outside a large set of doors and turned to them, keeping the flashlight pointing forward. "Do not say a word till I have spoken with everyone, since I am breaking one of our protocols." The figure whispered as they nodded.

"We will not cause you too much trouble, will we?" Ryou asked biting his lip as Malik slipped his arms from his friends to cross them over his chest with a defiant look.

"I will deal with it." The figure stated and pressed a hand to the doors and they swung open enough for them to slip in. Their first impression of the place they entered was awe. They had managed to clear out dirt and rock to create a large room that was wide enough to be sectioned off into a kitchen and mess hall area, a medical area, and a meeting area with two tunnels branching off from the other three walls.

"Amazing." Malik whispered with a shiver as Yugi brought a hand up and gripped his bicep, obviously a bit worried. After everything had been revealed about their blood relation, both had taken a day to get to know one another away from all the usual distractions and one of the things he had told her about was being forced to live underground. He would endure the bad memories that staying underground brought up again, just for the fact that he knew it was only for a short time and that he was not being forced to stay underground.

"Come on." The figure growled as the three moved closer, trying to ignore the fact that everyone present was staring at them in both curiosity and a bit of apprehension. They turned their attention to the figure's back as it led them figure led them through the main area and to the tunnel direction across from the main entrance and into the first door on the right. The room only had a patchwork futon in the far left corner with a crate by the futon with a lantern sitting in the center, on top of several books, and to the right was a makeshift wardrobe looking object.

"Nice place." Ryou weakly complimented as the figure crossed the small room and turned the lantern on, revealing that it was electrical in some way, and turned off the flashlight and stashed it back into its overcoat.

"I do have one question, before I leave you to your own discussion." The figure stated as the three shifted around the figure to poke at things, Malik and Ryou by the wardrobe as Yugi leaned against the wall at the foot of the futon. "Besides Chisis, why did you come here instead of just changing things in your time?"

"Usagiko, or whatever the pink haired annoyance calls herself, stole a dangerous golden blade from us and she escaped to this time." Yugi answered as Ryou and Malik were whispering to one another. "The blade contains the spirit of a warped, insane woman who wants control over everything and wants power. We may be able to change things in our time, but that was the one thing that we did want to risk ignoring no matter where in time it is." The figure was silent with that revelation.

"Please stay here till I come and get you in the morning." The figure stated and turned back to the door. "It is for your own safety and this would be a good opportunity to rest and plan out what your next move maybe." With that the figure stepped out of the open door and silently shut it.

"I think we unnerved him or her." Ryou mused as he slipped his backpack off of his shoulders and sat it on the floor to the side of the wardrobe before moving over to the futon and sitting down by the crate. With an exhausted groan he removes his shoes and sat them on the other side of the crate before turning his attention to his friends for a moment.

"Not everyday three teens claim to be from the past and find an ancient letter." Malik pointed out as Ryou decided to sprawl out on the futon, hands laced together behind his head. "Comfy?" he drawled out and sat his bag besides Ryou's before sitting on the futon by the white haired teen's hip and set about removing his shoes.

"Maybe, but I am going to go with more unnerved by trying to explain our presence." She told them while sitting her bag with the other two. "Does it really matter in the end?" she asked and turned around in time to watch Malik shove Ryou over and curl up on his side on the edge of the futon.

"Not really, since the figure will probably send us on our way tomorrow." Malik answered as he shifted and brought his right arm up and carefully pushed the top books, which the lantern balanced on, to the side so he could see the titles. "Which is probably for the best, we can't linger too long since every moment is crucial."

"What are we going to do?" Ryou asked as Yugi left the bags and plopped down at the foot of the futon and preceded to remove her boots.

"I say we break into the palace, that is where the brat will be." Malik muttered as he rolled on to his back and sat up. "Seems like a central spot to everything going on around here, too."

"That's good for a start." Yugi muttered as she laid her boots at the foot of the futon and maneuvered herself so that she was sitting against the wall with her legs thrown over Ryou's knees. "How do you break into a place that you don't know anything about, guarded by an army led by people that want to kill you?"

"Could just play it by ear at that point." Ryou suggested with yawn, closing his eyes as both Malik and Yugi turned to stare at him as if he had grown a second head. "Any ways, let's sleep on it. We really can't discuss what to do till we have more information on this time, which means questing the figure, or the pink haired annoyance leaves the safety of the army and palace, which is unlikely to happen."

"Who are you and what did you do with Ryou?" Yugi asked as the white haired teen snorted and turned on his side, facing the wall.

"Zuka's influence." He muttered and curled up in a ball, getting the final word in as Yugi snickered and Malik laid back down with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What if they don't believe the truth behind us?" Malik asked as Yugi shut her eyes and shifted so that only her shoulders and the back of her head touched the wall.

"We fight our way out." She solemnly answered as the blonde looked startled by her answer, but Yugi did not see that. "This future may have been bad, but imagine if Nepha got free with whatever power they have. The future would be inconsequential because she would have unlimited access to whatever power this farce monarchy has, which gives her access to however they time travel." Malik shivered, forgetting that the Scouts got here some how, and found that thought to be very disturbing.

"If I go to sleep now, will this be a nightmare?" he asked closing his eyes and attempting to force his body to relax, quickly dropping off since Yugi refused to answer him.

That last question rang in Yugi's mind as she opened her eyes and stared at the wardrobe across from her, illuminated by the dim glow of the lantern. She bit her lip as she came up with more possible scenarios that could happen, ranging from how to escape if the people the figure trusted decided not to trust them all the way to how to draw the scouts out. Shoving all that out of her mind she thought back to the first fight with Nepha, wincing because she knew that she did not have Yami's power to back her up this time around and then there was the added issue of what the insane spirit would do with access to the power of the Sailor Scouts or even this Wiseman character. She took in a deep breath and let it out, turning her gaze from the wardrobe to where her brother and Ryou were sleeping.

How much more would this ordeal change them?

She knew that Ryou went from shy and polite at the beginning of their junior year to his present eccentric and possibly even a bit violent, but could not really say that was a bad thing. Then again the only thing she feared, for Ryou sake, was the loss of what little sanity he had left, especially with how he reacted to turning Catzi into a doll. Malik had seen, and experienced, enough pain and suffering to last a lifetime and had only recently finished settling into the fact that he had a family that loved him and friends how would not leave him. Yugi did not want to even think of the possibility that Malik may freeze when Nepha showed her face, since he had dealt with the insane spirit on a daily basis. Would he relapse into his old, twitchy habits in the aftermath of the battle?

Then herself…

She knew that this upcoming battle would definitely destroy the last of bit their innocence, she mused bringing her arms up so that her elbows rested on her knees and her head in her hands. Battle City had pressed the limits of what they were willing to do to protect those they seen as friends and family, considering Yugi did not argue in favor of saving Isis from being Mind Crushed. The one thing that bothered her was that she could not pinpoint the change in their lives when they left the label of 'typical teenager' and went down the path of 'jaded adult.'

* * *

They exited the room and made it five feet down the tunnel towards the main area and paused, taking a few moments to push the hood back to show blood red hair and then pulling the mask off to show a young woman with high cheekbones that accentuated her sharp eyes and full lips, but the right half of her face was what set her apart from everyone because she looked like a doll that had been repaired one too many times. Standing out against her tanned skin was several lines of black stitches— the first curving from the corner of her lip to her cheekbone, the second set outlining her eye, and the third set was the longest and traced from her left ear along her hairline and behind her right ear and to her chin. With a sigh she ran a hand through her blood red hair and clipped the mask to her belt before crossing the reset of the distance to the entrance to the main area of the Resistance headquarters.

Many weathered faces, be it older men and women who have fought all their lives or the jaded faces of young men and women who could no longer be called children, turned and watched her move through the area. They were curious and wanted to ask, that much she knew, but the real question was who would be brave enough to ask the first question? "Benefrit!" A raspy voice shouted as she came to a stop between the mess area and the hospital area and glanced over her left shoulder and seen an old man hobbling towards her, his hair white and hanging down his back as he leaned heavily on a cane that had been fixed numerous times with duct tape and metal rods. "Your decision to bring guests caused a bit of a stir, since you are usually the first to be suspicious of any newcomers." He added with a knowing smile as she frowned and turned to fully face him while people gathered in a bit closer, making this an impromptu interrogation. Benefrit resisted the urge to wince, hoping they would have let her get something to eat first.

"While observing the palace, seeing how our scouts reported this morning that they seen a younger and dumber version of three of the Sailor Scouts, three teenagers appeared from thin air on top of the younger Sailor Moon. Words were exchanged and the Purple Pansy called for guards and ordered them killed." She reported in an official tone as everyone waited patiently, but Benefrit did not pick up again till a blonde young man with a deep tan clad in patchwork clothes slipped through the crowd to stand by the elder with his arms crossed. "Instead of panicking or even pleading for their lives two of the three who appeared automatically reacted and killed the small group of guards, one summoning a trap and the other a green creature that resembled a three foot tall mantis that walked on two legs."

"Summoned?" an older woman hissed out in shock as Benefrit nodded. "None of their forces can do that, hell they don't even condone it as an art form to be used in battle! They think it to be evil." She added as many whispered their agreement, they knew how much the monarchy valued keeping things 'pure' and 'good.' To the red head this was a good sign, it meant that she would not have to try and turn their rules on their ear and jeopardize the respect those people had in her in order to give the three a measure protection to complete what they came to do.

"Why did they come here?" the blonde by the old man asked as white haired twin siblings, wearing a black patchwork top and equally patched up pants with an overcoat, slipped through the crowd to flank Benefrit. She went to answer the question when both siblings began to check her over, from head to toe, with identical worried looks on their faces. "Shin, Shinobu, can you hold off on the mother hen routine?" he asked as the twins glared at him and slinked off to stand directly behind Benefrit, glaring over her shoulder at him.

"The experimental Time Key worked, Chisis safely made it far enough back to a time and started the process of changing several events." She announced as no one dared to speak, completely shocked that the untested time traveling invention actually worked. "They are here because the pink haired menace stole a golden blade from them."

"That is hardly a reason to come here." A man sneered as Benefrit sighed.

"Can I continue, Captain Pessimist?" she snapped out as the man flinched and nodded while those around him snickered. "They claim the blade contains the spirit of an evil woman, otherwise they would have just written it off and went about what they were doing. In a nutshell, they came here to take care of the object and its spirit with no strings attached." She elaborated, holding her hands a part as most accepted her words at face value while others looked ready to protest. "Before any of you begin to kick up a fuss, they will only stay here tonight and they will be heading out tomorrow morning. I could not leave them to our enemy with a clear conscience."

"No trouble, dearie." The old man stated with a laugh, slapping his bony knee. "It is clear from their attire, which is near pristine, and the fact that they are not overly curious about this place we call home that they are not plants. Hell, ya' all know that the monarchy tends to kill everyone that remotely looks like the original rulers and present rulers of Thebes." He added as that quelled the rest of the protests, since it was doubtful the Neo-King and his lackeys would actually lower their standards to do such a thing. "Out of curiosity, Benefrit, what are their names?"

"Bakura Ryou, Motou Malik and Yugi." She answered slowly as many eyes widened in shock, recognizing those three names. No one dared to utter those names, either in fear of being associated with the three who had dared to take a stand against monarchy after securing all the people they could or because they respected the sacrifice the three made in the end. "They also said that they are from the year 2009."

"How did they get here?" a woman asked as Benefrit blinked.

"I didn't ask them, all I know is that I witnessed them appeared from thin air above the past Sailor Moon. There was no fanfare that Pluto's Time Keys are known for, no portal like the Black Moon, no nothing." She answered as people began whispering again.

"Are they going to try and take over?" a man shouted from the back, causing a ripple of anger through everyone gathered. They did not want these time travelers to take over their organization, their fight, just because they came from the past and thought they were more powerful then everyone.

"No." Benefrit emphatically told them, glaring at those that looked ready to argue with her answer, as many looked relieved that there would be no fight over leadership. "As I said before, they are only here to deal with the dagger stolen by the pink haired menace. Nothing more and nothing less, which means they will be returning to their time right after that." After emphasizing that point everyone went back to what they had been doing before the questioning began, only they were either in a daze or shock from the information revealed. Unfortunately for Benefrit she was whisked away by the twins, Shin and Shinobu, towards the medical area for a full check as the blonde sauntered after them with an amused look.

It took Benefrit two hours to fully assure Shin and Shinobu that she had not been harmed in any way, shape, or form on her patrols. Even then they did not leave her alone, since they drug her from the medical area to sit down in the mess area as the blonde sat across from them. "I am only younger then you two by two years!" Benefrit protested as Shinobu smiled in a patronizing way and patted the red head on the head, like a person would a puppy.

"We also swore to take care of you." Shinobu stated as her twin brother, Shin, snickered. "What say you, Akhom?" she asked the blonde, who steeple his hands in front of him with a smirk.

"You do need a keeper, Bene, since you have a tendency to forget to eat or even sleep when you are determined to finish something." He answered as the red head glared openly at him, but he just smiled and nodded to her. Benefrit had grown up with Akhom back when they were children and lived in Thebes, considering the fact that her father died long before she was born and her mother in birth, and he had taken it on himself to be the older brother she never had, even if they were cousins.

"See? Even Akhom agrees with me. I can remember the nights I had to literally drag you back to my room and pinned you to the futon just to ensure you would sleep." Shin pointed out with pride as Benefrit blushed and bowed her head, bringing a hand up to cover her eyes.

"Is that all you two did on those days, or did you have to wear her out, too?" Akhom asked with a leer as Shinobu blushed at the innuendo and turned away from them. In response, Benefrit just lashed out with her free hand and hit Shin upside the head while Akhom chuckled. The light-hearted moment was broken up when the doors to the main area opened with a echoing 'clunk' and two scouts darted in, out of breath and looking rather pale. Benefrit forgot her embarrassment in favor of getting to her feet, her friends following, as the scouts came to a stop at their table, breathing heavy.

"What happened?" she asked as the one, a brown haired and eyed teen in tattered attire, took in a deep breath of air and exhaled a moment later in an attempt to gather his wits.

"There was an argument after the disruption at the gates a couple hours ago." He stated as his friend nodded in agreement. "The pink haired brat took off after an argument with the Purple Pansy, running into the heart of the dead city and was followed by the past Purple Pansy. The younger Sailor Scouts as we went, only to witness both being kidnapped by the Wiseman himself."

"What?" Akhom hissed out as the brunette flinched at the tone.

"Damn it, that is a hell of a bold move even for that slippery bastard." Benefrit stated as the two scouts finally caught their breath, but they still looked a bit uneasy. "Anything else?"

"Upon returning to our post, the Purple Pansy met the younger Sailor Scouts at the gate and told them that he put the present Sailor Scouts back on active duty to help find her since he could not risk them dying." The other rasped out as Shinobu slipped off to get a glass of water for them. "He also told them that he needed them to guard the palace and that the present scouts knew 'how to deal with the enemies that lurk in the city' and sent them into the palace. Another reason is probably to avoid a paradox situation."

"Yeah, and then he gave the present Sailor Scouts their orders when the younger ones were out of earshot." The brunette picked up with a shiver. "He told them that his brat of a daughter and past self were to be brought back in one piece, that he could reset their memories if need be, and to kill the three 'doppelgangers of the Thebes royals' when they found them." Shinobu returned just in time and handed them both a glass of water, which they basically gulped down in no time flat.

"That confirms that." Akhom muttered as Shin sat down, the implications of the scouts report finally hitting him.

"Good work." Benefrit told the two as they moved to get something to eat, having spent most of the day in hiding with little supplies, as the four sat down again. "Well shit." She muttered placing her elbows on the edge of the table and resting her head in her gloved hands, her mind supplying many bad scenarios concerning the Black Moon and kidnapping of the bratty princess and fop known as Tuxedo Mask.

"Very bad news." Akhom muttered to himself as Shinobu shivered.

"Anytime the Black Moon does something of this sort, they follow it up with a debut of their newest member." She rasped out with a frown. "They do not know how to be subtle about things like that and I am basing my assumption off what happened the last time they captured the government's main general." All of them winced or shivered at that memory of when they encountered that poor man. The man had been brainwashed by the monarchy first and then he had been captured by Wiseman and brainwashed again only then he was warped beyond any possible help and sent on a suicide mission to assassinate Neo-King Endymion while the Queen was attempting to break down the barriers around Thebes in the early days. They had captured the man and attempted to brainwash him again, unfortunately the man suddenly committed suicide by jumping from the highest spire of the palace and landed on the rose bushes in the garden.

"Disturbing memories aside, we best prepare for whatever Wiseman is going to turn the little menace into." Akhom drawled out with a frown, obviously unhappy with the turn of events. Benefrit sat straight up as she suddenly remembered what the time travelers had told him earlier about Usagiko, about the object that she had stolen from them.

"Murphy's Law just kicked in, I think." she suddenly stated as they all turned to her, confused. "Remember, they came here to deal with the object the brat stole and this isn't an ordinary object but one that contains a power hungry spirit." She pointed out, emphasizing the last part as Shin let out a string of colorful Egyptian curses as Shinobu brought a hand up to her mouth.

"When it rains, its pours." Shinobu stated as she got to her feet. "I best go make sure the medical staff is prepared, best not get caught with our pants down." With that she stalked off as Akhom got to his feet, wincing.

"I'll start spreading the news to everyone else, so we can at least be prepared. Even if it doesn't happen, at least we won't be caught with our pants down." He told them and made his way towards one of the larger groups of people in the main area.

"What of your interesting guests?" Shin asked Benefrit as he wrapped both arms around her shoulders and rested his head on her shoulder.

"They will be told everything we know, since it is obvious that this concerns them." She answered after a couple moments of silent deliberation as Shin shut his eyes and just held her, even if she did not move to return the embrace. "The longer they stay here the more dangerous it is, since they are vital to our timeline. I just hope they know what the hell they are doing or else we are screwed." She admitted with a pensive look. Benefrit silently prayed to the any of the gods or goddesses listening, that the three time travelers were ready for what they were about to face the next day.

* * *

Yugi woke up with a crick in her next and no idea what time it was, but when she opened her eyes she was thankful the lantern was still on. With a wince she sat up straight and noted that during the night Malik and Ryou had managed to embrace one another, which made her groan because she had no camera to capture such a good piece of blackmail material. A couple minutes later she began to edge towards the foot of the futon and proceeded to pull on her boots and lace them up before she got to her feet. She stretched her arms above her head as her back loudly cracked in protest, wincing at the sound. "To disobey or not to, that is the question?" she whispered to herself as she crossed the room and silently opened the door and slipped out, not even checking to see if her brother or Ryou were awake, and stalked down the corridor towards the entrance of the main area.

"You look a bit unsure." A voice rasped out as Yugi spun around and awkwardly stood toe-to-toe with a smiling white haired young woman with stormy gray eyes clad in black attire and an overcoat. "I see, you are one of the guests Benefrit told us about last night. Good morning." She stated with a nod as Yugi felt rather nervous now.

"Good morning, I think." Yugi added with a nod in return.

"No one expected to meet you, or your companions, till Benefrit or Akhom have risen." The young woman continued as she pushed Yugi into the main area and towards the medical area, ignoring the shocked stares from those awake. "I take it you were bored with sitting in a room with nothing?"

"More curious then bored." Yugi admitted as she found herself sitting on a medical table, the white haired woman poking and prodding her, occasionally humming. "Curious about why we are being trusted. Why are you just automatically assuming we are trustworthy?" She asked while closely watching the young woman, who didn't even pause to answer her. Instead Shinobu just pushed Yugi on to her back and quickly removed the boots Yugi had on, effectively shocking the teen.

"Our enemies have had time to lower themselves from their lofty pedestals and have their minions infiltrate our movement by disguising themselves as those they hated, as your future self as well as your companions. They never did, never would have, because they killed anyone that looked remotely like them." The young woman explained, not caring if she should explain whom she meant as 'them,' and tugged Yugi's socks off. Yugi frowned as she watched the young woman suddenly grab her right foot in her cold hands, making the teen jump and glare. "My name is Shinobu, by the way."

"It is always nice to know the name of the person molesting my feet." Yugi dryly replied as Shinobu chuckled and carefully slid her hands up so that her thumbs were rubbing circles around the two protruding joint bones. "Besides your preoccupation with my feet, what is going to happen to us?"

"For your information, I wanted to throw you off balance." Shinobu informed her with a glare before she went back to looking over Yugi's feet.

"You're doing a damn good job of it." Yugi grumbled, wondering it Shinobu did this to everyone she met or was friends with.

"To answer your question, I assure you that I don't know what will happen." Shinobu cheerfully stated as she slid her hands up the leg of Yugi's pants, forcing the denim to bunch up above her knee just as her hands stopped on either side of her knee.

"Of course, but if your hands slide up anymore I will be forced to hurt you." Yugi warned and pulled her leg away, causing Shinobu to switch her attention to her other foot.

"Would you really?" a voice rasped out as Yugi glanced over her shoulder as a young man who had to be Shinobu's twin brother, since the spiky white hair and eyes gave him away. "No offense, Motou-san, but you and your companions still live in the belief of your time. None of you have truly seen or even experienced a fight for salvation, for freedom, a fight where a group has nothing much to lose but everything to gain when they prevail." He pointed out, rendering Yugi speechless.

"Shin!" Shinobu scolded, briefly glancing up from her examination.

"You think we set yourselves up to fail what we came to do." Yugi flatly stated as Shin crossed his arms and nodded.

"You will fail because you will not go full out against your enemy, or else the one you came to take care of would have been ashes at this point." He boldly pointed out with a hard look. "In this case you either have to go that last three yards and outright kill, or else you will perpetuate this vicious cycle. That is what screwed the Moon Kingdom over, that is what screwed your time period over in the end, and that is why our future is the way it is." With that he stalked off as both Yugi and Shin stared at where he had been.

"I apologize for his actions, it is hard for someone from outside our movement to really understand…" Shin trailed off as Yugi carefully brought a hand up and paused whatever Shinobu was going to add before she slowly turned to her, violet eyes reflecting her resignation instead of her anger.

"No, don't apologize." Yugi whispered as Shinobu let her foot go and watched the teen sit up. "There is a reason why they say 'history repeats itself' and 'the truth hurts' and I think you secretly agree with him." It wasn't an accusation, nor was it a profound statement, but more of a realization. "Can I have my socks back?" she asked, breaking the deep moment, as Shinobu snorted and handed her what she requested.

"I see Shinobu met you first." A deep, accented voice stated as Yugi looked up from putting her socks on to see a blonde young man approaching them.

"Good morning, Akhom!" Shinobu cheerfully greeted as she moved around Yugi and hugged the young man. "I take it Shin made his way back to Benefrit this morning?"

"He did, but I think he took his anger out on someone since when I first met this morning he was biting for a fight." He replied and looked Yugi over, causing the teen to glare at him as Shinobu handed over Yugi's boots.

"That would be me, then." Yugi stated as she pulled the laces of her right boot tight, not even glancing up at him as she switched to her other boot and proceeded to finish lacing it.

"You still look in one piece, so his verbal lashing must have been relatively mild." Akhom joked with a clap of his hands as Yugi did glance up this time, frowning when she seen the grin on the blonde's face. "You must be Yugi, my name is Akhom Ishtar." He went on, never losing his grin, and stuck his hand out to a now surprised Yugi, who was staring directly into his eyes.

"A pleasure." Yugi automatically stated as she accepted his hand, unfortunately she missed the fact that Shinobu had spun to face someone.

"I thought I told you to wait." A familiar voice snapped out as Yugi's eyes shifted from Akhom to those of the now unmasked figure they had met the previous day. The teen noted that the young woman's hair fell to cover the left side of her face like a curtain and that her eyes were red like Yami's and just as intense, which did not phase Yugi at all.

"I did, till I got tired of being kicked by Malik and listening to Ryou mumble about dolls." Yugi answered as the unmasked figure just glared.

"Benefrit, calm down. Can you honestly admit that you would not have done the same thing if you were in her position?" Akhom asked as Benefrit glared at him this time while Yugi frowned and Shinobu palmed her face.

"Fine, in light of this _mutiny_ I'll go and check on our other two guests while you both entertain her." Benefrit practically sneered as she turned away from the group and pulled her mask from her belt and slipped in on, not wanting anyone to see the tears on her face. It was painful for her to look the teenage Motou Yugi in the face without wondering what type of person her mother would have been if she had survived. Every time she got close to the teenager since the letter her chest was painfully tight and a depression seemed to settle on her, but she did not have time for such issues. Her duty was to the safety of her people and to the defeat of Crystal Tokyo, after that she would have time for her breakdown and for her dreaming.

"I'll go with her." Shinobu added, her face betraying her concern, as she waved at the two before turning and jogging to catch up with her leader.

"Motou-san, would you care to join me for a walk?" Akhom asked a confused Yugi, who had been watching Benefrit and Shinobu disappear through the small crowd of people. She jumped a bit as Akhom rested a hand on her shoulder, pulling her out of her thoughts, and turned to him with a deer in the headlights look.

"Of course." She muttered as he motioned for her to follow.

* * *

"What do you think of your possible future so far, Motou-san?" Akhom asked a weary Yugi after they emerged from the underground, cautiously making their way through the streets of the ghost city above. He knew that Benefrit was uneasy speaking with the teenager who would have been her mother, but he was not going to pass up a chance to sate his curiosity about his mysterious Aunt. He fondly remembered the stories that his Father and Dad would tell him when he was younger, about his headstrong Aunt Yugi and stubborn Uncle Yami, their failed attempt to help give Benefrit a perspective on her parents. This was also his only chance to see why his Aunt Yugi, and by extension Uncle Yami, were respected by everyone he grew up around. Why his relatives visited the ancient Egyptian style tomb, where both were laid to rest, on the day of the **Bon Festival** to leave and offering only to return to the palace in tears.

"That it is a nightmare that goes against nature. I actually tried lying to myself a good bit since our arrival at your headquarters, telling myself it was just a nightmare brought on by stress." She wryly answered, tilting her head back to stare at the gray sky and ignoring the sudden cold breeze that picked up. "For whatever it is worth, we will do our best to prevent this." She told him as he chuckled.

"You three have the best means to do so, being from an age before this farce." He told her with a wave of his hand when he mentioned 'age.' "What do you plan on doing once you complete what you came to do?" he asked as Yugi closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What exactly do you mean?" she asked, feeling a bit confused. That simple question could mean practically anything and be answered any number of ways and she was not taking a risk of answering it the wrong way.

"You know the basics of this future, from the monarchy that rose from the ashes of a world they destroyed to the fight of us rebels for freedom." He began, sounding like a teacher or professor with his drawling tone. "When you complete your self-appointed task, will you return with the knowledge of what will happen or will you some how destroy these memories?" he asked, thankfully elaborating on his rather vague question, and turned to stare at her. Yugi opened her eyes and turned her head to look Akhom straight in the eye, not daring to look away from him.

"I know of the rise of the old empire centered around Thebes as well as the death of the first resistance to stand against the scouts, that my future self died because of a poison after giving birth to Benefrit. All of that information is from the letter that was left for her to find." Yugi told him as he nodded. "Do I want to remember this after it happens? Hell no, but I can't give that as an answer because minds change after everything is said and done. Whatever answer I would give you now would have to be taken with a grain of salt."

"Many people would have given me a definite 'yes' or 'no' answer to that question. Why didn't you, Motou-san?" he asked, arching an eyebrow in question but Yugi would see and hear that he was more curious then annoyed with her answer. She resisted the urge to groan since she really did not want to discuss her answer, especially not to someone who was probably fishing for some sort of information.

"Stress, the heat of the moment, and the fact that I am looking way to far in the future. If I live, I will give an answer, and if I die, you have the answer." She told him as he nodded.

"Very true, Motou-san." he whispered, not a bit surprised by her answer and defense as they looked away from one another and at the ugly Crystal Palace in the distance. "I will wait and see what your answer is."

"Why is that?" she asked as he bit his lip, feeling a bit nervous now. Should he tell her the truth or should he believe that she asked a rhetorical question?

"Growing up in Thebes, Dad used to tell me stories about your future self and your future husband." Akhom admitted, deciding that the truth would not hurt at the moment. "About your tendency to do what was right no matter what it required, to stand by your friends and family through any trouble, and the sheer diversity of people that respected you through everything. I was two when you died and I have no memories of you, only pictures." Yugi tilted her head to the side and turned to stare at him, but he did not look at her and focused on staring into the distance.

"You do know that there is a difference between the woman you are describing and me?" she asked as he nodded, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath. "I am the raw beginning, I have yet to polish off the rough edges of my personality and ways."

"Which is what makes it hard for Benefrit to look at you." He admitted as Yugi as silent. "Her mother and father are a sensitive topic since people, outside of our family, respect them to the point where she feels like a large shadow is cast over her. Many wanted her to be as powerful and regal as Uncle Yami yet determined and hard-working as Aunt Yugi, and because of that she grew up with a deep resentment for her parents." He told her as Yugi groaned and palmed her face, causing him to open his eyes and glare at her.

"History repeated itself in the worst possible way." She admitted without looking at him, which confused him. "Chisis was born after his mother sacrificed her soul to save her children, his father did not acknowledge him in any way and he grew up with a resentment of his father." It was unspoken the differences between the two explanations, but Akhom would not vault the parallels and assumed that was why the two got along so well without a prior meeting or ten.

Unfortunately a sudden explosion nearby interrupted their discussion. "Holy shit!" Yugi hissed out from between her teeth as she and Akhom lost their footing on the shaking ground, hitting the ground rather painfully, as a deafening sound of rumbling began. Old school natural disaster drills hit Yugi as she covered her head and the back of her neck with her arms and hands, which Akhom noted and copied. Five minutes later the ground finally stopped shaking and the rumbling was gone as sudden as it began.

"What the fuck was that?" Akhom growled out as both he and Yugi scrambled to their feet and took in their surroundings. The buildings, which had been abandoned for far too long, had began to crumble because of the small earthquake but what really drew their attention was the black crystal spires that now towered over where they were standing. Both of them could literally feel the tainted dark power that radiated from the spire, they could feel the waves of madness and greed that poured off of it and literally cackled about pain and suffering.

"Do you hear the voices, too?" Yugi wearily asked a shivering Akhom, who was rubbing his temples with his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"Is that what Father and Dad felt every time they entered the Shadow Realms?" he asked Yugi, wincing, as the feeling from the spire got stronger. He was suddenly stumbling as Yugi drug him away from the area, farther away from the spire, muttering curses under her breath.

"No, the Shadow Realms never took crystal form. Hell, I don't think they would take any form because that would restrict their freedom." Yugi answered and came to a sudden stop, causing him to stumble again, and gulped. "Oh shit." She whimpered as he opened his eyes and seen a horde of Black Moon dolls moving in to surround them, others appearing from thin air as reinforcements.

"Well, it is obvious now that they are making their move." Akhom deadpanned as he brought his hands down and rested them behind his back. "We need to get back and warn everybody." He told Yugi who gave him a look that clearly told him 'Thank you, Captain Obvious' as her hand reached towards the deck holder on her belt and drew a card.

"Hope you are ready for this." Yugi muttered as she brought the card up to eye level while staring at the dolls as she heard two clicks followed by the sound of metal sliding against something made her turn her head to where Akhom was standing with two katanas in hand, tips at the ground. "I summon the Dark Magician Maram!" she proudly declared as a Dark Magician glad in dark red appeared beside her.

"A true battle this time. I take it you going to take a chance and join in the fight as well?" Maram asked as he brought his staff up.

"Of course." Yugi told him as she placed her hands on either side of the Millennium Puzzle, which was still around her neck, and hoped that she could actually enter the Silent Magician state.

* * *

**Bon Festival:** Japanese "Day of the Dead" and, depending on the area of Japan that a person resides in, it is celebrated on different days. Since I am assuming Domino City is in the same area as Tokyo (also because of the travel to Juuban District), I chose July 15.

**A/N:** Well, this capture took a bit to drag out into existence. It actually got restructured three times, hence the part before hte real beginning of the chapter, and it definately was rewritten twice. At first a majority of the character development and interaction did not exist until I read through it and thought it was missing something, which my beta S2Teennovelist agreed after reading both parts.

If I am unclear on anything, please drop me a line so I can go back (or incorporate a exposition/monolouge) clear it up.

Coming up next! Yugi get's slapped around a bit, the Villians arrive, and the Battle for the Future begins! (I think Yami marik is due for his grand entrance soon, too.)


	39. Trio: PAWNS IN PLACE

Yeah... the hiatus wasn't planned, since real life got in the way, nor was the writer's block, which was causing by a friend introducing me to BBC's Torchwood and Merlin. Things have faded and now I hope to actually not go off for months without updating. The only warning for this chapter is... the monologue at the end was needed for the plot.

* * *

**8. PAWNS IN PLACE**

_And the night and the dark  
And the hopes and the dreams  
As we all play our parts  
While ignoring the screams_

_So we lie to ourselves  
And we just carry on  
Never stop, never turn  
Don't admit what is…_

_Gone in to this twisted story  
All these things so clear before me  
Every path we've ever taken  
Can't admit we were mistaken_

- _Epiphany _by Trans-Siberian Orchestra from _Night Castle Disc 2_

* * *

The fight never had a chance to begin, to the ire of Akhom and Maram, because the dolls that had been surrounding them suddenly disappeared as a robed figure appeared in the area. This figure reeked of the same tainted power that the spires did, which easily put all three on edge. "Well, what do we have here?" The figure hissed out, sounding amused, as the hood covered head lifted up just enough to show nothing but darkness under it with glowing silver eyes. "Most curious, it has been while since I encountered a person that could summon such a high level being of the Shadow Realm." He added while throwing his head back with a mad cackle that sent shivers down their spines, causing all three to take a few steps backwards.

"Who the hell is that?" Yugi hissed out between her teeth, attempting to not draw the figure's attention as Akhom grit his own teeth.

"Wiseman, psychotic leader of the Black Moon family." The blonde answered as the figure, now identified as Wiseman, stopped his cackling and lowered his head to stare at them again.

"One of the two leaders of the expendable resistance, which is not too surprising, but your company is. One of the relevant time travelers and the one that I wanted to speak to for oh so long, it is my lucky day today." Wiseman rasped out as he brought his arms up, sleeves falling back to show oddly glowing hands with spidery fingers, and a crystal ball appeared floating between his hands. "A pity none of you will get to see my Dark Queen making her grand début at the palace, confronting those pesky remnants of the Silver Millennium."

"Shit." Akhom muttered as he filed that information away all the while silently praying to the gods and goddesses that they would survive this encounter to put that information to use. Unknown to him Yugi already had a hair-brained plan in mind, hoping that Akhom and the others would eventually forgive her for what she was about to do.

"Maram." Yugi whispered as the Red Dark Magician did not look away from the figure, but nodded to acknowledge the fact he heard her. "Do not argue with me, but I need you to take Akhom back to the others."

"What?" he hissed out, eyes narrowed as Akhom's eyes widened, but he did not turn away from the figure in front of them.

"Do it, I have a damn good chance of getting out of this alive and he needs to tell the others what is going on up here." Yugi growled as Wiseman brought his hands above his head as a crackling orb quickly formed and then, as quickly as it appeared, Wiseman made a violent throwing motion. "Now!" she screamed ripping off the case holding her dueling deck and shoved it into a confused Akhom's hands just as the Magician spun and grabbed him around the waist. Maram threw Yugi and unhappy look, looking ready to protest the order he had been given, but disappeared in the blink of an eye just as Yugi turned to run towards the entrance of what looked to have been an alley.

Time seemed to literally slow to a crawl at the thrown orb impacted the ground where they had been standing and blew up, sending pieces or rock and dirt in all directions. Unfortunately for Yugi she had not gotten away quick enough since the shock wave from the exploding orb sent her crashing into the remains of a brick wall, knocking her out.

* * *

Maram and Akhom dropped into the middle of the main area of the Resistance headquarters, shocking all present as the now awake Ryou and Malik paled when they seen Maram had been summoned. "Oh shit." Malik whispered as Ryou palmed his face while Benefrit looked at them oddly.

"That's an understatement." Akhom dryly told them, turning to stare at Maram for a moment before looking down at the leather case in his hand. "How the hell did she summon you, Dark Magician?" he hoarsely demanded, going with the question that had been bugging him for the last twenty minutes before the information.

"We were given the ability to do so before we left our time, it is a power that comes with the Millennium Items and in our case we are wearing the items because the spirits that once inhabited them wanted us to have a back up plan when it comes to fighting." Ryou nervously answered, clasping his hands together at the small of his back to prevent them from seeing just how nervous, as Akhom turned to him with a skeptical look. "Yugi completed and is wearing the Millennium Puzzle, which gives her the ability to tap into the power of the spirit that once resided in it, and I wear the Millennium Ring." He further explained as he brought his now trembling hands back into view and picked up the ring on his chest.

"I have the Millennium Rod, but I am completely unsure about my ability to use the Shadow Realm's power because I haven't met the spirit yet." Malik added as many began to whisper about this revelation, leaving Akhom and Benefrit to look a bit shocked.

"Why did she shove this into my hands?" he asked holding the case up as Malik took a few steps towards him and deftly took the case from his hand and looked it over.

"That is Yugi's dueling deck." Ryou answered with a frown, watching as Malik shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans. The reality of what Yugi had done quickly settled in his and Malik's heart and minds like a cold, lead weight. It meant that she was basically defenseless against their enemy unless she went Silent Magician, but both knew the only time she had accessed that power was in a high emotional moment. "Wonder why she didn't take it with her."

"We'll grill her about that later, when the situation isn't as critical. First, I want to know what happened up there and where is Yugi?" Malik asked Maram as Akhom ran both hands through his hair, hoping the Magician would answer before attention was turned to him.

"Yugi figured she had a better chance of surviving being captured then Akhom did." Maram honestly told the blonde, who scowled and turned fully towards him with a pinched look on his face.

"You just let her?" he coldly asked as Maram stood straight with an affronted look and then stalked over to stand about a foot away from Malik.

"I would have defied her if I had the heart to but the situation left no room for much thought since that creature did attack us." He snarled and leaned down enough to look a growling Malik in the eye. "You think I am any happier about this situation then you are? It was my responsibility to guard Yugi whenever I can, since I am no longer required to be present all the time. I know that she is out there and, no doubt, elbow deep in trouble but we are still here arguing!"

"Malik, Maram." Ryou began as the blonde reared back and went to punch the Red Dark Magician, who leaned back away from the attack and then took a few steps away from the enraged blonde. "Damn it, you two, this is not the time to have a fight about what has already passed!" he shouted as everyone backed away from the beginning of a fistfight.

"I finally find my sister, find the family I wanted, and now I lost a member to this Ra forsaken future that should have never happened!" Malik shouted as his entire body started to tremble. "You went back on your responsibilities to guard her, imagine if Yami is forced to transverse the barrier of time to help her!" he added with a venomous glare at Maram, who paled, but did not back down.

"This is not good." Benefrit muttered as Ryou palmed his face.

"Did anything else happen up above?" Ryou asked Akhom, who was messaging his temples while the argument continued in the background.

"Black crystal spires, parts of the dead city was destroyed upon their creation, Wiseman's sudden appearance, he knew about Yugi being a time traveler, and Wiseman was practically glowing with pride when he mentioned something about his 'Dark Queen' making her 'grand début.'" He reported, turning to a frowning Benefrit. "I think it would be wise to get everyone organized because this is not going to be pretty."

"Shit, that isn't good." The red head muttered with a shiver. She had a few theories about the identity of the 'Dark Queen' and figured that she would be either Yugi or Usagiko. Beyond that everything else that had happened above ground seemed a little bit too bold, even for the Black Moon, it was almost as if they thought that they had the upper hand with this new player. "Raise the highest alarm possible, we will treat this like the final battle." She ordered Akhom, who stood straight at her tone before bowing slightly and running off to do so.

"You think it will really be that big?" the white haired time traveler asked as Benefrit sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as the argument continued in the background.

"They destroyed parts of the dead city and he was bragging about a new pawn in this game. Do I honestly have to answer that?" she growled, glaring at him from the corner of her eye as he didn't even flinch. "I think I have a migraine setting in, which is not a good thing with the present situation." The shouting match, now with a rapt audience, was not helping things and Ryou honestly thought the two would start throwing punches soon.

"Would it be possible to have someone shove Malik back into your room with something to eat while I get the details from Maram?" Ryou suddenly asked Benefrit, sounding oddly serious, as she let her hand drop from her face so that she could stare at him in a bewildered manner.

"Are you bi-polar, by chance?" Benefrit asked as he shrugged.

"It is just an honest question, since you need to prepare for your planning phase and Malik's sudden bad mood will not help you in that matter and both of us know that Akhom left out a good many things about what happened up above." He pointed out as she grudgingly nodded her agreement. "You and your own get a realistic plan and we will help out, since this is your fight and you know what needs to be done."

"You break up the fight and calm them down, I'll have Shinobu bring him some food." Benefrit sighed as he smiled and nodded.

"Perfect!" he chirped with a clap of his hands and happily stepped between the two. "Maram, I need to talk to you so don't go anywhere. Malik, I think you need a time out." he boldly declared and swung his blonde friend around just as Shinobu pushed her way through the crowd, her curiousity having finally gotten the better of her.

"What's going on?" she asked as Ryou gently pushed Malik in her direction.

"He's been bad and needs a time out, could you grab him something to eat and show him back to the room where we were last night?" Ryou asked as Malik tried to glare at him, but Shinobu threw him off balance by grabbing his wrist and pulling him through the now slowly dispersing crowd.

"Are you worried about our sanity yet?" Ryou cheerfully asked a twitching Benefrit as he turned towards her. The red head said nothing as she turned on her heel and stalked through the crowd, muttering to herself about how stupid she was to trust insane time travelers, to prepare for the upcoming battle. "I hope you know you are doing with this hare-brained plan of yours, Yugi, because I don't think you are going to like the consequences." He muttered to himself with a sigh, watching as people began to rush around again in preparations for what was to come. He knew that Yugi had to have a good reason to send her deck back with Maram and Akhom, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what it could possibly be. Besides that, the one question that he didn't ask out loud was why did Yugi think she would have a better chance at surviving being a hostage then Akhom?

* * *

The first thing Yugi realized after she clawed her way back from the darkness of unconsciousness, was that she was laying on her stomach and her entire body ached from being tossed like a rag doll. Taking in a deep breath, thankful that her ribs were not hurt in any way, she forced her foggy mind to focus on the matter at hand. She could feel the smooth floor beneath her fingertips but heard nothing else around her, which was disturbing since that meant she was probably in a prison cell. Slowly, she opened her eyes and seen she was lying on a white marble resembling floor and that everything else apart from the floor was black.

Sucking in a breath she rolled over on to her back and stared up into the darkness for a bit. Something was missing, she could feel that much but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. Closing her eyes she took a few more deep breaths and tried to remember what she had on her before the explosion of Wiseman's attack. "Oh shit." She whispered out loud as her eyes snapped open and she brought a hand to her chest where the reassuring weight of the Millennium Puzzle should have been, but it wasn't.

"You are awake, how delightful." A familiar voice hissed as Yugi bolted upright up just as Wiseman appeared ten feet from her, skeletal hands hovering above a floating orb on a small silver pedestal.

"I was kidnapped by a Nazgul, now I have seen everything." Yugi deadpanned as Wiseman was silent, which Yugi interpreted as he didn't get the reference, so she pressed on. "Where am I?"

"**You are inside in my dark castle, at the end of the Fourth Dimension I created from all the negative power of my second finest creation— the Black Poison Crystal.**" Wiseman proudly answered as Yugi had a blank look, clearly not understanding his answer and probably not appreciating the gravity of the matter. She was a mere human who was now standing in the heart of his twisted dimension and yet his power could not touch her, it could not take root to warp her into the pawn he wanted to.

"Right, anyways, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you have the Millennium Puzzle. So what now? I'd say world domination, but after seeing Crystal Tokyo it would be safe to assume that I'd be wrong." Yugi told him, feeling a bit more nervous since his 'castle' made her feel like she was a cornered animal.

"Brilliant observation." Wiseman cackled as she rested her hands on her knees and hunched over a bit, staring directly at him with a bored expression. He tried to bespell her with his eyes, like he had Prince Diamond and Sapphire when they had been here hours earlier, but she all she did was look away after a few moments and he was no closer to gaining any control over her. "Do you want to know why you are still alive and not a decaying corpse in the rumble of that part of the city?"

"I bet it is a part of your big, villainous plan?" Yugi deadpanned as Wiseman snapped his fingers and a woman appeared beside him. Her cotton candy pink hair was up in the pointed cones, which was Usagiko's signature hair style, wearing a long black dress with a slit up the left side showing that it was lined in red satin with red gauze forming the sleeves that attached to the off-the-shoulder straps of the tight bodice with gem studded leather bands around her throat and wrists. "Congratulations on bypassing puberty." She told the woman, whom she was assuming was Usagiko, in a shocked tone.

"Is poor Yugi afraid?" the woman asked in a mocking tone of voice, but Yugi recognized the voice since it still haunted her nightmares. It took her a moment to recover, to turn her momentary wide-eyed look of fear into a narrowed look of pure hatred.

"Look who was released into the world, again! Hoping that the phrase 'third times the charm' is true?" Yugi sneered as the woman's face twisted into a sneer, her hands forming fists as Wiseman laced his skeletal fingers together.

"Now, my Dark Queen, you don't have reason to linger here." Wiseman cooed creepily at the pink haired woman, reaching up with one hand and cupping her face. "I have given you that power for a reason and it is to destroy those pesky Sailor Scouts and the comatose Neo-Queen Serenity, afterwards you can deal with every other enemy of the Black Moon in your own way." He added, fingers tightening around her chin and forcing her to look down into his glowing eyes for a few moments before letting go of her face.

"Nepha finally became someone's bitch! Wait till the boys here about that." Yugi laughed as the pink haired Nepha shrieked and went to attack her, but Wiseman lashed out and grabbed her wrist and threw the woman back into the floor.

"Go deal with the Scouts!" he bellowed as she glared at Yugi, momentarily ignored his orders. "Take those failures Sapphire and Diamond with you, they are of no use to me anymore since their minds have long since been destroyed." He added as she nodded and was gone in a wisp of darkness again leaving Wiseman to turn to a now scowling Yugi.

"She is beautiful, isn't she?" he asked as she rolled her eyes.

"Hard to find someone beautiful if you think that they have a pitch black heart and is also a sadistic bitch." She dryly answered as he chuckled.

"That is why she is beautiful. I used the spark of darkness in the heart of Princess Usagiko, who hated how her parents stunted her growth in more ways then one, and the pure black heart of former Queen Nepha to create the perfect Dark Queen!" he laughed as Yugi decided to get to her feet, shoving her hands into her pockets and sighing.

"Great, you gave birth to a Dark Queen. I am so happy for you." She sarcastically stated as his glowing eyes turned from his orb to stare at her with a feeling of annoyance towards the teen's indifference to his masterpiece. "Where is the Millennium Puzzle?"

"Is that all you care about?" he mockingly asked her and pulled the puzzle from his robes. "Do you know how these items came to be?"

"I know it was a long time ago, in a land far, far away." Yugi dryly answered as Wiseman's glowing eyes narrowed at her flippant answer.

"They were forged before the reign of the Pharaoh's son, Atemu, and they were awakened with many soul sacrifices." Wiseman hissed out in a smug down as he caressed the golden Puzzle with one hand. "They were my greatest creation, my greatest means of actually giving man the ability to control all beings within the Shadow Realm. Now you have delivered the crown jewel of the collection into my grasp." He cooed again as her eyes widened and she stood straight up.

"Back up a moment, _you_created the Millennium Items?" she asked skeptical as Wiseman cackled at her question, which answered her question. "Why the hell would you want to control the Shadow Realm?"

"The only way to rule was with unquestionable power, I discovered the Shadow Realm because I was a sorcerer that specialized in summoning from other worlds and realms. When I came upon the beings of the Shadow Realm I found my army, my unquestionable power, but I could not summon any of the high level beings." He told her, placing the chain of the millennium puzzle around his neck and letting it sit at the level of the orb that was still floating in front of him. "When I returned to my laboratory I set about creating a metal that could be used as a conductor for my power."

"I feel like I heard of this scenario before." Yugi whispered to herself as she pulled her hands from her pockets and crossed her arms over her chest and looked away, running through movies in her head to figure out which one(s).

"Eventually I found out that gold was the best conductor of such dark power and forged the items, but with specific reason since I wanted them to have a secondary use to strike fear in the hearts of my future slaves." Wiseman continued as Yugi glanced back at him with a disgusted look. "The Scales used to weigh a person's soul, to see if they were telling the truth to me. The Eye to see into their minds, to make sure I could never be defeated. The Key allows me to walk the paths of their mind, to see the best way to twist a person to my will. The Rod allows me to control those around me, to bring about unquestionable loyalty that would be only to me and no one else. The Tauk would have let me see into the future, so I would never be surprised by anything. The Ring was a searcher, a means of always finding what or whoever I am looking for. Finally we have the Puzzle, the sign of the true ruler with its ability to destroy the mind of my enemies." He listed off as she blinked.

"I get it, you're an megalomaniac." She growled out with a huff as he ignored her in favor of his story.

"The only way their power could have been awakened, after their forging, was with the blood and souls of a thousand people." He continued as she froze, paling at that prospect. "During the reign of Pharaoh Atemu's father, I slaughtered an entire village of bandits and thieves to awaken my items all with the Pharaoh's blessing. Unfortunately there was only three survivors of the entire ordeal, but the eldest didn't get away unscathed since I left him with a nice scar over his eye so that every time he looked at his reflection he would remember what I did." He bragged as Yugi shivered, but her mind came to a stop. Scar over eye? It was vague enough to be Zuka, who had a scar and was a Thief King, and she resolved to never ask him about what happened in the past it this little history so happened to be true.

"Now you are just being an extreme narcissist." Yugi told him, trying to shake the history of the Millennium Items from her head for a moment, from the new material she'd have for nightmares when they returned home. Yet again he decided to ignore her in favor of hearing himself talk, causing her to palm her face in annoyance.

"That damned Pharaoh betrayed his word, had his men mutilate me as soon as the ritual was finished, in my weakest moment, and took the items for himself." Wiseman continued as he suddenly hurled his floating orb past her, causing her to flinch when it shattered against the marble floor. "I barely survived that betrayal and spent a decade or so recovering in my laboratory, being forced to take this form for the time being. When I finally emerged I seen what became of my precious Millennium Items, but my rage became known when I seen the Pharaoh's son wearing the Millennium Puzzle at his coronation." He seethed as she took in a deep breath and let it out after a few moments.

"Does this have anything to do with what is going on now?" Yugi asked as Wiseman turned his attention to her and she assumed story hour was now finished.

"I wanted you to know just whom you are dealing with now, former holder of the Millennium Puzzle." Wiseman stated in a smug tone as Yugi quirked an eyebrow. "I am the creator of the items, the only one to know the full extent of their powers, and now I will rule the world with the Shadow Realm as my army!" he cackled running a finger down the side of the Puzzle. For some reason Yugi was a bit confused about her feeling of indifference towards the present situation, since she did not feel overly concerned about the enemy gaining possession of the Millennium Puzzle and its power.

"So why am I still alive if all you wanted was the Millennium Puzzle? Seems a waste of my time and yours since all I am doing is just here taking up space here." She pointed out as Wiseman clasped his hands in front of him, glowing eyes fixed on her.

"I wanted you to witness as my Dark Queen destroys everything that is in my path to ruling the world this time. Watch as I release her on the past and destroy all you care about before I destroy your mind and use the other items to create a second Dark Queen to do my bidding." He answered as Yugi palmed her face with her left hand. For once she would like one of the numerous enemies to just declare he wanted her dead and leave it at that.

"Why are all the enemies that want the Millennium Items such Drama Queens?" Yugi asked herself as Wiseman was by her, grabbing her right wrist, and they were gone in the blink of an eye back to Crystal Tokyo.

* * *

**You are inside in my dark castle, at the end of the Fourth Dimension I created from all the negative power of my second finest creation— the Black Poison Crystal. **– Paraphrased from page 113 of the _Sailor Moon _manga Volume 6. To that effect, from what it looks like in the manga, they are floatin gin the middle of nowhere and everywhere.


	40. Trio: A STEP INTO MADNESS

**10. CRACKING THE PALACE**

_D' you breathe the name of your savior in your hour of need,_  
_And taste the blame if the flavor should remind you of greed?_  
_Of implication, insinuation and ill will, 'til you cannot lie still,_  
_In all this turmoil, before red cape and foil come closing in for a kill_

_Come feed the rain_  
_'cause I'm thirsty for your love dancing underneath the skies of lust_  
_Yeah, feed the rain_  
_'cause without your love my life ain't nothing but this carnival of rust_

_It's all a game, avoiding failure, when true colors will bleed_  
_All in the name of misbehavior and the things we don't need_  
_I lust for after no disaster can touch, touch us anymore_  
_And more than ever, I hope to never fall, where enough is not the same it was before_

- _Carnival of Rust _by Poets of the Fall

* * *

Benefrit spent fifteen minutes practically yelling herself hoarse, directing all present on what would need to be done before a majority of them reached the ground level. As they prepared she stalked from the main area with Akhom, Shinobu, Shin, Ryou, Amon, Malik, and Maram following closely behind her with the advanced fighters (who were always ready to fight). "Wish I knew what the hell caused that second explosion." Benefrit growled under her breath, the sound of their footsteps echoing in the tunnel. No one else daring to speak a word due to their nerves at what they were about to enter into.

"More like who." Akhom countered, watching the red haired leader pull her mask from her belt and slide it into place.

"Could have been Yugi." Ryou added, sounding rather hopeful.

"How? She gave all her cards to Akhom and we gave them to this ass to use till we find her." Malik reminded them, jerking a thumb at Amon who kept brushing against him.

"It doesn't matter." Benefrit snapped at them, her posture shifting from stalking predator to armed hunter when she suddenly drew her gun. Everyone else looked either confused or weary until they heard the echo of someone running towards them, that was when the entire group came to a stop and finally drew their weapons. "Identify yourself!" she barked out, bringing her gun up and disengaging the safety with a click. Several tense moments later a scout covered in blood and dirt came to a stumbling stop, painfully falling to his knees with a whimper of pain before them with his hands raised in a sign of surrender.

"Crystal Soldiers are gathering in great force from their last outpost, heading to the main gates." he rasped out, staring at them with fear and a little bit of hope. This tidbit of information only served to increase the anxiety of the advanced forces.

"Why?" Shinobu asked frowning, ignoring the fact that she could feel Benefrit's glaring at her from beneath her mask.

"Big explosion at the gates." he answered shortly, slowly lowering his hands.

"Answers that question, I hope you boys can keep up with us." Benefrit growled out, motioning to Shinobu who shuffled forward and began to tend to the scout's injuries. "We'll leave him in a storage room, he'll be safer there." Shinobu let out a cry of protest as two men moved toward, picking the scout up under his arms, and the group was on the move again.

* * *

Yugi and Mahaad quickly cut through the drones left to slow any pursuers down, pausing only once to summon four other Shadow beings to fight against the two young women who identified themselves as Neo-Sailor Mars and Mercury. Both of them having tried to corner them in a courtyard moments after Wiseman and Nepha passed by in their destructive wave. At the beginning of the fight Curse of Dragon, Mystic Elf, Gaia the Fierce Knight, and Mana the Dark Magician Girl had distracted the two long enough for Mahaad and Yugi to run past the courtyard and further down the long corridor.

Both slowed their run to a walk, then paused in the middle of the long, white marble corridor and searched for a sign or even hint of where the deadly duo may have went. "It's official, they have absolutely no taste when it comes to interior decor." Yugi grumbled watching Mahaad tap the bottom of his staff against the white marble floor.

"Even the palace back in the days of Pharaoh Atemu was not as hard to navigate at this mind boggling monstrosity." he growled whirling around and destroying a pedestal with a case of crystal roses in it, the noise causing Yugi to flinch. Still no drones flocked to the noise, which was disappointing.

"What was that?" a high pitched, yet slightly muffled voice demanded. Both Yugi and Mahaad perked up and patiently waited for a response, since it sounded relatively close to where they were.

"Any possible back up being slaughtered." Wiseman smugly informed the person who asked the question. Mahaad grabbed Yugi's wrist and putting her down the corridor, sharp eyes taking in the details of the closed doors.

"You don't you recognize your own daughter?" Nepha cooed in a mockingly sweet tone as Mahaad stood straight up, glancing sideways at a frowning yet pale Yugi. That tone definitely belonged to Nepha, so everything was still in the final banter stage before the storm hit.

"You can't be our innocent and cute Small Lady, we would never allow our daughter to dress like such a disgusting harlot." The faraway voice of Neo-King Endymion- maybe Tuxedo Mask- sneered as a familiar high-pitched cackle made Yugi flinch back. Mahaad pressed his lips into a thin, nearly white line and roughly pulled the teen towards a set of door that had been left ajar.

"I finally hit adulthood, Daddy dearest, and have come into a great wealth of a power that is far greater then this worthless piece of glass you and Mother all but worshipped." she snarled out as they both heard the sound of something glass, or even crystal, hitting the white marble flooring only to roll away- like a marble would- without breaking. "I thought I would be kind and let you join the winning side, but it is obviously a waste of my mercy and time."

"It seems that my Dark Queen does have a very magnanimous streak." Wiseman laughed with a wave of his astral hand. "You see, she is my key to destroying everything that stands in my way and then I will take this world for my own!" Then there was a commotion that sounded like heels on the marble followed quickly by the sound of those same heels coming to a skidding stop, followed by mumbled protests and insults.

"Your Highness!" Sailor Venus shouted, her voice a bit grating on Yugi's quickly fraying nerves. No words were said between her and her guard as the clicking of high heels on the marble was heard again, only this time with the sound of a skin-on-skin hit or a flash of light- followed either by the sound of crackling electricity, the sound of a chain, or cracking of a fire- after one of the attacks are shouted and someone painfully hitting the ground. Yugi held her breath as silence fell over the room they were eavesdropping on, in moments a slow and familiar evil laugh forced caused both eavesdroppers to flinch.

Can I actually go into a fight with the intention to kill someone? Yugi asked herself, trying to force her heart to stop beating in triple time and trying to remind her nerves that she had faced Nepha in Battle City and survived. Then again, I had Zuka helping me and he did take the brunt of her anger… possible her attacks as well. There was just too much to lose if she made the wrong decision. There was too much against her, top of the list being that she was a novice when it came to things like this and her powers had just recently manifested, to gamble with the present and future on the line! Sliding her dirty hands into her hair she tried her hardest to fight back the urge to cry in frustration.

"Your precious Usagiko, your darling Small Lady, no longer cares about what you foolish and naïve meddlers. She is now mine!" Nepha manically cackled, her innocent mask shattered.

Must have wanted anguish and maximum helplessness from them. Yugi snorted out loud, only for Mahaad to bump her with his staff in warning. With Nepha in fine form, I can't help but wonder if our health insurance covers psychologist bills, at this rate I'll need professional help.

"Our Chibi-Usa is still inside of you, you just have to reach deep down…" Sailor Moon pleaded, sounding to be nearly in tears. Mahaad just pinched the bridge of his nose since that was the absolute wrong thing to say to someone that had just laid her feelings about everyone on the table.

"She is dead! I, the powerful Queen of the Darkness, rose from her ashes. I am now Nepha, the chosen champion of the ruler of Darkness—Wiseman." She declared with a high pitched laugh. Yugi carefully pulled her remaining cards from her back pocket and looked them over- Sword of Dark Destruction, Man-Eater Chest, Sorcerer of the Doomed, Swords of Revealing Light, and Castle Walls.

Could be worse, I could have Kuriboh in my hand. she thought with a resigned sigh, squeezing her eyes just. The only way they would be able to get through this would be to do something she wouldn't typically do, go in head first and hope she landed on her feet. Then again, I've been doing that more often. Taking in a deep breath she slowly opened her eyes and poked Mahaad, who glanced down at her with a frown. "We need to stall for time." she whispered to him as he nodded in agreement. They need time for a better plan or for the others to arrive, which ever happened first.

His eyes snapped up to peer into the ajar door and the only warning he had was the crackle of lightning. Instinctually, he seized Yugi by her collar and yanked her to the side just as the doors were blown off the hinges, the sound of the explosion echoing in their ears and the corridor.

"Would you care to join us, Yugi?" Wiseman cordially asked as neither she nor the Dark Magician moved from the floor.

"I think it is safer to listen from here, at least I'm shielded!" she shouted in answer, coughing a bit towards the end as the dust began to settle. They got to their feet, quickly and rather quickly, only to press their backs to the wall.

"We won't hurt you, since you are still an important key to my plans." Wiseman assured her, but he didn't sound too convincing. Yugi closed her eyes and tried to think things threw but her mind lingered on what could be called the worse plan ever, which meant that it was most definitely a hair-brained and spontaneous plan. So she quickly summoned three of her five cards.

She would not let Nepha and Wiseman make a move that would lock the world into checkmate, not while there was still a chance to cut them both off at the knees. Holding her head high and glancing at Mahaad, who was whispering to a mummified man who looked like a typical voodoo priest holding a red bladed sword, she stepped into view. "Yugi…!" Mahaad gasped loudly, slapping a hand over his mouth when she glanced at him from the corner of her eye in warning.

Good luck. he thought, turning to the others she summoned and pointing down the corridor.

* * *

The air was still heavy with blood when Benefrit and the advanced group made it to the gates without any setbacks. "A quarter of you scout down the east wall and another quarter down the west wall- if you encounter anything, do not engage. I repeat: do not engage unless you think that you can take those you encounter without any casualties. Everyone else will be stationed at these gates as sentries and all of you will be under the command of Akhom and Shin. The rest of you will follow me, we'll scout out the palace." she ordered, glancing around the crowds as every nodded their agreement. With a dismissive wave, everyone immediately split into the aforementioned groups and began to carry out their orders.

"Good luck, fearless leader." Akhom told his friend with a mock salute. Benefrit snorted while striding past the gates with the teenagers, Amon, and Shinobu. The outer gardens were completely silent and still pristine, but as they moved through the front doors and into the palace they encountered areas that had scorch marks and ashes scattered about. Pressing forward they passed a second area that looked like this, only with more scorch marks, only to freeze in place when they heard the sounds of a fight.

"Stay still you abominations!" a voice, very familiar to Benefrit and Shinobu, shrieked as they witnessed a large ball of fire impacting the wall ten feet in front of them.

"So says one that tastes heavily of innocent blood." a slightly high pitched female voice countered as a blonde young woman, clad in purple with accents of pastel pink barely visible in the overcast light, landed in the middle of the hallway with her short staff- more a scepter with a large golden star on top- held in both hands. "Hiya!" she shouted raising her short staff above her head and brought it down in a slashing motion.

"Mercury Bubbles-" another voice intoned but was abruptly cut off. A moment or so later a young woman in a white and blue sailor fuku, whom the teens identified as the new Sailor Mercury, flew out threw the air and hit the marble floor a few feet from the blonde, who jumped at the right moment when the now unconscious Sailor Scout rolled her way and finally hit the wall. The blonde glanced at them briefly and then again, darting away from the battle area only to tightly hug a blushing Maram.

"Where have you been?" she demanded with tears coursing down her cheeks, cutting through the fine layer dust that covered her.

"What's going on?" Benefrit demanded, prompting the blonde to release the Red Dark Magician with a blush not missing the amused smirk curling Amon's lips.

"Mana…" Maram trailed off.

"Girlfriend?" Malik inquired, the Magician glared.

"That is Mana the Dark Magician Girl, the apprentice of Mahaad, and…" Maram began to explain, only to be cut off by a pouting Mana.

"Yugi summoned myself, Curse of Dragon, the Mystic Elf, and Gaia the Fierce Knight to help fight but we told them to go on ahead. We lost Dragon early on and Mystic just before you arrived." she reported, standing straight up with the occasional glance over her shoulder at the still stirring Sailor Scout. She then spun around, launching a weak attack that hit the downed young woman and sent her rolling further down the corridor and into a marble pedestal. The momentum that the Sailor Scout had built up was enough to make the pedestal wobble and knock the crystal vase of pristine white roses off of its top and on to the Sailor Scout's head was official took her out of the fight.

"Curses!" a deep masculine voice howled in protest. Mana shivered, sparing a weary glance over her shoulder into the courtyard.

"Now Gaia is out." she sighed before adopting a serious look that did not look right on her young face. "Excuse me, I have a rabid bitch to put down." With that she rose upon her tiptoes, pecking a shocked Maram on the cheek, and then stormed determinably into the courtyard just as a flame arrow grazed her hat and left a new scorch mark on the wall where it impacted.

"That's Sailor Mercury?" Ryou asked squinting at the downed Sailor Scout in the distance, noting that her hair and body style didn't fit the petite and shy bookworm.

"Yes, we call her Neo-Sailor Mercury. One of the three Scouts that gave birth to the bloody side of 'The Great Reawakening,' where if purification by the crystal didn't work they would be killed." Benefrit explained, gritting her teeth and clenching her hands into fists. "No bet on who your blonde friend went to fight, she would be Neo-Sailor Mars. The Neo-Queen and King's torture expert and the bitch that gave me a majority of my scars."

"They are the ones who killed all of those innocents who refused to bow to the Neo-Royals, laughing as they painted the streets red with blood declaring their victims 'unclean' by the kingdoms new standards." Shinobu added, biting her lip and clutching her medical bag in a white knuckle grip. With a snarl Benefrit charged into the courtyard that Mana had disappeared into, blind with rage.

"You four go ahead, we'll catch up after they are dealt with." Shinobu assured them and ran after her friend without a second thought or backwards glance. Maram looked conflicted about what he should do, go help Mana in the fight or go help Yugi.

"Go and help them, they need it more then us. We will be fine." Ryou told Maram, laying a hand on the Red Dark Magician's forearn.

"If you say so." Maram muttered, still uneasy, and ran after the two resistance leaders. The two teens and Amon ran forward, past the courtyard in the same manner that Yugi and Mahaad had earlier, sending a short prayer to the gods that Benefrit and their friends won that battle in the end.

The trio slowed down when they spotted Mahaad standing against the wall, among the debris of a blown up door, with the Sorcerer of the Doomed wielding a large and oddly recognizable sword with a red blade. Both Shadow beings turned to them as they came to a stop five feet from them, the Sorcerer holding a thin finger up to his mummified lips and cautioned them to be silent.

"What are you doing here?" Sailor Venus demanded as the three moved a bit closer to the doorway.

"Where is Yugi?" Malik hissed out, looking around frantically for his sister.

"She's in there, with Nepha and the Scouts." the Dark Magician whispered pointing at the doorway. Malik and Ryou looked horror stricken, Amon went to enter the room but Mahaad roughly grabbed his shoulder and yanked him backwards. "Patience, guard."

Now they just had to wait for the right moment to step in… and hope that Yugi didn't do something too stupid.

* * *

Yugi stepped into the room with her head held high, but her hands were nervously clasped at the small of her back as her trembling fingertips occasionally brushing against the edge of the two cards she carefully slid up her sleeves. She would not dare look submissive to anyone in this room, not unless it worked in her favor. "What are you doing here?" Sailor Venus demanded with a glare as the other scouts struck poses and tried to look intimidating, but failed next to the creepy phantom that is Wiseman and insane looking Nepha with pink hair.

"You already know the answer to that, so you tell me." Yugi deadpanned, staring her blonde down with a half lidded gaze. "Remember? We both have a common goal, yet vastly different approaches to how it should be handled."

"We don't need your help." Tuxedo Mask sneered brining his cane up to attack, the other two Sailor Scouts nodded their agreement to his statement. Yugi barely repressed the urge to heave a heavy sigh at the overconfidence they had in their magical powers, but held her tongue.

"Do you honestly think you can defeat me this time, Yugi?" Nepha sneered, eyes narrowed as she watched the teen take few more tentative steps forward before stopping.

"I'm going to try to, maybe even kill you this time." Yugi confidently informed the possessed woman with a fake smile. Wiseman silently watched the exchange, eyes glowing eerily, but he didn't say a thing while brushing the top of the faintly glowing Millennium Puzzle with his fingertips. The Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo mask goggled at the prospect of Nepha, whom they seen as Dark Lady, being killed.

"You can't kill her! Yugi, Chibi-usa has done nothing wrong! She's only brainwashed!" Sailor Moon protested as she threw herself between Yugi and Nepha. "That and I will not let you harm my future daughter!" she added with tears streaming down her face as Nepha snorted called her power forward, black power crackling around her raised hand as the shadows of the room took vague shapes or whipped around of their own violation.

"You claim to fight for those who are innocent and cannot, yet you are lead the idiots that brought about this farce of an utopia." Yugi venomously spat at Sailor Moon, who flinched at the attack flinch as tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. Nepha watched the exchange with curiosity, yet also using the opportunity to continue powering up her first move. "Your self righteous talk of justice and peace is all for nothing, especially after seeing what a 'perfect world' you plan on creating. If this is what your grand scheme is going to turn out to be I would rather have your blood on my hands then to let this happen!"

"She is still my daughter! She is possessed and can be saved!" Sailor Moon wailed, practically sobbing into her gloved hands. Yugi couldn't bring herself to feel anything, she knew that Nepha had to be dealt with before anything else.

"You are an idiot, more so then your past self. A pity your high moralistic mother never instilled a sense of self in you." a slightly deeper voice barked out as a tall blonde man in baggy black attire sauntered in, his arms hanging limply at his side.

"Venus Crescent Beam-" Sailor Venus cried out, bringing her hand up as a gold and orange ball of power charged at the tip of her index finger. Nepha just threw her head back and cackled. "-Smash!"

"Into the Shadow Realms with this!" Nepha bellowed as Venus let her attack go, only for her aim to be off and the attack didn't even come close to striking the blonde man. It never impacted the wall, since the walls had already been swallowed by writhing shadows. "Let's see if you Scouts can fight in a place made up completely of shadows. Then we will see if they can fight without the Millennium Items and their darker halves to save them."

"They?" Tuxedo Mask echoed, watching Ryou and Malik scurry into the room only to run into the blonde man's back.

"Yugi, you are doing well for being kidnapped." Ryou cordially told his friend with a wide smile, the tri-color haired teen turned to him while watching Nepha and the scouts from the corner of her eye.

"Jupiter Oak-"

"Yes, but only after I saved myself." she retorted with a nod. The three snickered but the moment of amusement was broken when Yugi fully turned towards her friends and ran, taking a chance by turning her back to everyone. Nepha took advantage of the opening and brought her hand down, the shadows began to consume the room event faster. Drawing the bottom card of the two she had up her sleeve she spun on her heel, now facing their enemy and tentative allies, and brought the card up.

"-Revolution!" Sailor Jupiter finished hurling the attack towards the three teens and the blonde man.

"Castle Wall!" Yugi shouted eyes widening when an old fashioned stone wall with the beginnings of towers on either side, appeared barely a foot behind her just as the attack exploded against the stones. Moments later Castle Wall faded and everyone found themselves thrust violently into the Shadow Realms, away from any that may interfere with what will be the final battle.

* * *

**A/N:** This chapter has been updated, a few minor errors fixed and a few more probably missed. - 12/24

Working on getting the next chapter up soon, at least as a preliminary since my beta is out till after New Year's... or I'll hold everything till after New Year's and update in the 8,000 word bracket.


	41. Trio: BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE, EXPOSITION

**11. BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE, PART I: EXPOSITION**

_And the night and the dark_  
_And the hopes and the dreams_  
_As we all play our parts_  
_While ignoring the screams_

_So we lie to ourselves_  
_And we just carry on_  
_Never stop, never turn_  
_Don't admit what is ..._

_Gone in to this twisted story_  
_All these things so clear before me_  
_Every path we've ever taken_  
_Can't admit we were mistaken_

- _Epiphany, _by Trans-Siberian Orchestra from the album _Night Castle, Disc 2_

* * *

Back in the present everyone in Satou Benefrit's house in Juuban seemed to be sitting on pins and needles as the day passed slower then trying to pour molasses in the middle of a blizzard.

Both dark spirits were playing a very intense game of chess on an antique board, balanced on the middle cushion of the couch, lent to them by an equally nervous Mizunio Ami, who was sitting on the floor with papers and books spread over the coffee table. In the kitchen Youko and Benefrit were keeping their hands busy by baking cookies and cakes, since neither woman had the urge or nerves to try and read a book or take up hand crafts to pass the time. Within the first few hours they had made at least four different cookies (totaling up to at least eight dozen) and started making two different layered cakes complete with homemade icing. The remaining three were sitting at the dining room table playing cards- Strings occasionally biting her nails, Chisis drumming his fingers on the table, and Rei humming.

Ami scowled when the tip of her pencil broke in the middle of sentence at the end of a page of important notes. Sighing she sat the pencil down and reached down to pick up her glass of water, which had been sitting by her feet on the floor, only to accidentally knock it over. Glaring down at the spreading puddle soaking into the carpet she quickly got to her feet and ran into the kitchen to get a towel, not pausing to stare at the finished baked goods and ingredients covering every possible surface. Dodging between the two nervous women she silently swiped a relatively clean towel, hanging on the handle bar of the closed oven, then ducked out again. She let out a squeak of shock, jumping slightly, after a loud crashing sound was heard behind her only to be followed shortly by a few colorful curses.

"Youko? Benefrit-baasan?" Chisis cautiously asked, Ami didn't stick around to look into what happened since those in the dining room seemed to be on the ball.

"Everything all right?" Rei nervously added.

"Don't worry, dears, just a slight mess." Benefrit assured them with a high-pitched fake laugh. Ami winced and squeezed her eyes shut, dropping the towel on to the wet carpet then crouched down and pressed it down. "I lost my grip on my metal mixing bowl, sorry if I startled you."

"And I dropped my glass of water when I jumped." Youko sighed. Moments later the sounds of glass shards scrapping against the linoleum kitchen floor seemed to echo in the house.

"By the way, are you two trying to single handedly open a bake shop?" Strings blurted out in shock.

Ami didn't hear the rest of the conversation. She had sucked in a deep breath and sat down pulling her knees to her chest and clapped her hands over her ears. Everything came back to letting Yugi, Malik, and Ryou go to the future without protest. Letting three new friends, practically strangers, do something that she should have brought up awhile back but never did. She knew that they didn't ask for her help for some unknown reason nor did they force her with a guilt trip like Usagi may have done… No matter how circular her thoughts she wanted this entire thing to come to an end before the waiting game drove everyone nuts.

As this all went on, the two dark spirits were having issues of their own. Zuka had been feeling increasingly more distracted from his game of chess with Yami, but not by the conversation taking place but by the muffled emotions he was feeling from Ryou. His chest was tight with anxiety, which eventually melted into slight shock and a lot of fear, and the usually calm and collected Thief King was quickly getting tired of these constantly changing, intense feelings. Taking in a deep breath he cautiously reached out to Ryou, hoping to calm his chibi-hikari enough that he didn't feel like he was going to keel over of a heart attack or kill the next thing to annoy him. He picked up his white queen and made to move it across the board, intending to take out Yami's rook, when his entire body froze and his eyes widening.

He could actually _hear _what Ryou did.

_**"Thief King Zuka… thought I took care of all of you… my order." **_a semi-familiar voice gloated, most of it sounding almost too far away to hear properly but what he heard enough to feel rage. It was the same rage that used to be come with any thoughts of the Pharaoh Atemu, or of Atemu's father, accompanied by the urge to get revenge for the childhood and family he had stolen from him. Being distracted by his own emotions Zuka didn't realize that his control had snapped and that Ryou could feel his emotions. _**"A pity you didn't stay… glorious sacrifice… the Pharaoh condemned my decision to kill..."**_

"What?" Zuka snarled, baring his teeth in annoyance, dropping the queen and staring blankly at the board while trying to strengthen the connection just a bit more. Moments later a tanned hand slid into view and pinched his nose and pulling his face up to meet Yami's confused gaze.

"Attention issues, Thief?" Yami sardonically inquired, arching an eyebrow. Zuka opened his mouth but then snapped it shut, having nothing to say tot eh other dark spirit since he was suddenly feeling a bit light headed and dizzy.

"Shit." he hissed out from between his teeth, flopped backwards and cracking the back of his head off of the wooden table beside the couch. That caused Ami's head snapped up as Yami picked up the chessboard and sat it on the coffee table, on top of Ami's notes and open books, before he got to his feet and leaned over the other dark spirit.

"What happened?" Ami cautiously asked scrambling to her feet, eyes wide. Youko peered into the room, curious about the loud 'thunking' sound, and frowned.

"Yami?" Youko asked as she stepped in, watching as the tri-color haired dark spirit touched the glowing eye that appeared on the white haired dark spirit's forehead. Both she and Ami then felt rather nervous, like something was going to happen, and then the vague whisper of voices…

"Get Hino-san and Mother in here, this room will need to be warded to contain the shadows." he gruffly told her, taking a step back and then turning to face her with a serious look. "This had something to do with the Shadow Realms."

"How serious?" Youko pressed, Ami slipping from the room and into the dining room to get Rei first while the two spoke.

"Very." he solemnly informed her before he bent down and pushed the coffee table further away from the couch. "Don't you feel a bit different in here, closer to us, then in the kitchen?"

"Yes, but…" she trailed off as Ami, Rei, Chisis, and Strings rushed into the room just as Benefrit stepped from the kitchen, having realized her friend was not helping her anymore.

"Hino-san, can you help Mother ward this room?" Yami asked as the miko nodded, frowning and looking much like she wanted to ask him why, but his mother looked resigned to what he asked as if she knew why. A little voice in the back of his mind whispered that she probably did, being his mother and all.

"Ami, Strings," Rei began, turning to her two friends, "can you both take Motou-san leave the house for a bit? I have never done anything on this level and…"

"We understand." both girls stated in unison with a nod.

"Call us when we can come back." Strings told them with a wave before they scurried from the house, eyeing the shadows that were now shifting independently of any light source. So they made their way towards the Crown Arcade, where it was safe.

"Don't worry, Hino-san, you do what you can and I will cover what you can't as well as I can since we both use conflicting powers." Benefrit reassured the nervous miko, who stood up straight and looked her former enemy in the eye without any fear.

"Despite our bad blood, I trust you." Rei informed her with a nod before she pulled out small stack of blank white slips of paper and a black permanent marker, gaining a few amused looks from those still present. "Jii-san always taught me to be prepared for just about anything." muttered in her defense, cheeks flushed. She threw herself into the tedious work of making up the complex wards needed to protect a house or room as Benefrit watched from over her shoulder, curious about this warding technique.

As they set to work, Yami sat against the couch feeling rather heavy and oddly tired. Shutting his eyes and trying to focus on his breathing while his fingers sought out the puzzle ring on his left hand and twisted it around, trying to comfort himself with thoughts of Yugi's return. _**"Our Dark Pharaoh, honored guardian." **_a deep, powerful voice addressed him as he bowed his head so that his hair obscured his eyes, which were open wide with shock.

_It couldn't be… not after all this time with them being silent! _Yami frantically thought squeezing his eyes shut.

_**"We have not been ignoring you, our Dark Pharaoh." **_another powerful voice chuckled as he physically flinched back. _**"It has been awhile since any held our power, in any way or form, as your Yugi and you do now. We had faded, waned in power, till this day and now such power!"**_

_Power? _he echoed, still fearful of the answer he would get in return.

_**"The power you woke in her, that has been gaining strength second after second." **_a third voice growled and carefully tugged on his own powers. _**"You brought all of them fully to our attention when you sent them forward in time, using our grace and power."**_

_What are your interests in them? _Yami asked, trying not to sound like he was demanding anything of the three gods.

_**"Our interests will be revealed to you when the time is right, not a moment before." **_the first snarled as Yami flinched, biting his lip to restrain the cry of pain as his power was roughly tugged. _**"We have called a Tribunal, all past enemies of our Realm will now be laid to final rest in order to protect our future interests. Be prepared."**_

_I will be, honorable gods. _he assured them, but a feeling of fear settled in his heart and mind.

_**"We have one final thing to do." **_the second voice assured him and that was when his mind went blank.

Chisis was nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot with his hands clasped behind him, watching as everyone did something. Well, everyone but Yami who tiredly lifted Zuka's legs up on to the couch before collapsing with his back against the middle of the couch with his chin down meeting his chest. Taking a step forward, intent on checking on the tri-color haired dark spirit despite loathing the man, he froze as Yami's head rose and the Eye of Ra glowed brightly on his forehead and his red eyes were blank.

**"You are summoned to our tribunal." **he informed the teen, tone uncharacteristically indifferent and aloof.

"Tribunal?" Chisis asked out loud, drawing Benefrit and Rei's attention since they had just finished placing wards on the third wall of the room.

**"By the decree of we three gods, rulers of the Shadow Realm, Chisis the son of Atemu must appear before us and stand beside the others for judgment over matters that we believed would work themselves out." **he continued, as if Chisis had not spoken, and lazily raised his left hand. **"To us, come child, by our power and our will." **he finished as the shadows consumed Chisis and the presence possessing Yami left him abruptly, the young man falling to the side like a marionette with his strings cut, the Eye of Ra still glowing on his forehead.

"I think that this is more then just a bad omen." Rei told Benefrit, voice barely staying level, as the older woman looked ready to run and see if her son was fine.

"It may be, but we have to finish the last wall."

* * *

Being forced into the Shadow Realm was not a pleasant feeling, or so Malik decided as he carefully sat up and rubbed his aching shoulder, since it felt like the world had definitely went sideways rather violently, as if they had all been drunk and then accidentally stumbled on to the **tea-cup ride** for a couple rounds. "Everyone still alive?" he asked glancing around, ignoring his surroundings in favor of looking for his friends and enemies. He spotted Ryou a foot to his left, laying face down.

"Malik, I'm going to start a brief and intense love affair with this nice, smooth ground… please don't tell Zuka." Ryou muttered into the stone floor. "A nice, warm, firm embrace…" Malik rolled his eyes and spotted Yugi curled up on her side in front of him.

"Never met someone who loved stones that much." Amon commented while brushing dust from his black attire, having kept on his feet from decades of practice before his soul was bound, carefully walking forward and crouching by Yugi. The Scouts were still out as Nepha looked smug and Wiseman was drawing in rasping breaths before he let out a cackle.

"Someone kill the ass dragging their nails down the chalkboard, I'll pay you." Yugi grumbled and slowly sat up, rubbing her right arm as Amon crouched by her. Malik let out the breath he had been holding in and devoted some time to taking in his surroundings now, with the enemy gloating at the possible allies still down for the count. "Who are you?" she asked, squinting at him for a moment.

"We met before, briefly." Amon began, but Malik snorted.

"Yugi meet Amon. Amon meet Yugi." Malik sardonically answered.

"Nice to meet you in your own body." Yugi politely told Amon with a nod.

"Back to the matter at hand, where the hell are we?" Malik blurted out as he spotted something behind Nepha in the form of three smooth, black obelisks covered in barely visible engraved hieroglyphs. The walls were traditional mud brick, the columns were lining the side walls, and in front of the obelisks and on a raised dais sat three thrones carved of the same smooth black stone as the obelisks. With the dark sky above them Malik assumed that they were possibly in a courtyard of sorts since it wasn't the traditional graveyard they arrived in, nor any other place in the Shadow Realms that they were vaguely familiar with…

"The Shadow Realm, of course." Nepha sneered as the scouts stirred, the partially awake Domino City teens and Amon ignoring her answer, as Malik pulled himself to his feet and hauled Ryou up, the Millennium Ring nearly hitting the white haired teen in the face.

"Malik, why did you tear me away from my lover?" the still dazed, white haired teen grumbled while squinting at the blonde. "Did she fail and send us to Egypt?" he asked hanging his head and shaking his foot, unhappy that sand was in his shoes.

"What are you… This can't be the right place!" Nepha snarled twirling around. She looked pale with fear while wildly looking around, but the fear quickly passed only to be replaced by relief when Wiseman began to laugh uproariously.

"The heart of the Shadow Realms, their seat of power…" Wiseman growled out. Amon helped Yugi to her feet as Amon and Ryou hugged her, muttering sincere death threats in her ear if she pulled a stunt like that again. "Can't you taste the power that resides here? Every particle of sand, the very air we breath, is charged with the power of the Shadows. This is the place where three gods supposedly created this realm, born its inhabitants from their own power, and rule this place with an iron fist!"

The fanatical and awestruck history lesson only served to put everyone further on the edge.

"Another words we are either trespassing on sacred ground or…?" Malik trailed off biting his bottom lip and glancing around for any signs of priests, guards, or whatever else the gods may have placed here for protection. That was definitely something Malik, and he was sure the others, did not want to find out the hard way.

"Boring place." Venus mused out loud.

"No more boring then your oh so original Crystal Palace." Malik sneered in response, only for Ryou to sigh and tug on an errant spike of Malik's hair. Malik let out a brief cry of surprise and turned to glare at Ryou, who shrugged. This was enough to draw Wiseman's attention. The phantom turned to them but his odd starburst looking eyes did not make it to Ryou's face instead they were glued to the Millennium Ring hanging around Ryou's neck.

"Um, guys, why is the floating pile of robes eyeing my chest?" he whispered to his friends, their eyes turning to Wiseman.

"He's attracted to shiny gold objects." Yugi dryly assured him with a reassuring pat to her friend's shoulder. "I hope." she added under her breath, ignoring the dirty look Ryou shot at her.

"Thief King Zuka, how nice to see you are still alive. I had thought I took care of all of you street rats with my order." Wiseman simpered. The three teens stared at him with spines ridged, unfortunately the phantom's coy tone quickly dissolved in to maniacal laughter that caused all but Nepha to shiver in revulsion. "A pity you didn't stay and join your fellow villagers in their glorious sacrifice for a greater and more prestigious cause, even if the Pharaoh condemned my decision to kill every single one of you." At that part the Sailor Scouts looked rather pale.

"What?" Ryou yelped out, frozen in shock and paling as Wiseman's words settled in his mind. Malik reached out and grabbed his shoulder firmly and shook, briefly snapping Ryou from his shock.

"Sailor Moon, watch out!" Jupiter practically shouted in warning. The three teens and one dark spirit turned, as one and watched as an attack of dark energy rushed at the shocked Sailor Scout leader. Instinctively Yugi drew the last card she card she, literally, had up her sleeve.

"Swords of Revealing Light." Yugi dryly intoned without hesitation as a ring of white energy swords formed a large barrier around Wiseman and Nepha, the attack crashing harmlessly against the swords made of light.

"Stalling for time?" Nepha asked in a haughty tone with her arms crossed.

"Says the fool that blindly threw everyone into the Shadow Realms." Amon snorted. Nepha glared at him for a couple of moments, then her lips slowly curled into a devious yet cruel smile. "You still have yet to educate your minions on the dangers of such acts, Necrophades." Yugi glanced over her shoulder at him, her expression odd.

"You know the phantom wack-job in the robe?" she hissed out in an incredulous tone, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Amon quickly held his hands up in the universal sign of peace and surrender, looking rather nervous. Ryou and Malik moved to flank him in an attempt to look menacing, only to fail since they were more than a little curious about what Amon knew of their enemy.

"He was a sorcerer known as Zorc Necrophades, infamous because he was commissioned by Atemu's father to create the perfect army- obedient, powerful, and nigh indestructible. There was a falling out after he ordered royal guards to slaughter a village of defenseless people…" Amon trailed off as Wiseman, now known as Zorc, held the Millennium Puzzle between his hands and began to growl out a chant that pulled tendrils of shadows towards the item.

"The village of thieves?" she asked as Amon nodded, barely concealing his shock that she (a teen from this modern age) knew about the secret of that specific village.

"Necrophades was the one that ordered the slaughter and watched it take place, the Pharaoh didn't know about it till after it was done and the items finished. He may have been a iron fisted tyrant but he wouldn't needlessly slaughter his own people no matter what they did or where they lived within his territory, that's what war and invasions were for." he continued telling them, Ryou's eyes widening as he gripped Yugi's shoulder in order to stay on his feet.

"How do you know all this?" Ryou hissed out, feeling rather lightheaded. He could feel the surge of intense emotions bubbling in his mind, centering around the link that he had with Zuka, the most powerful being the dark spirit's interest in the conversation and barely repressed anger at the topic. "How do we honestly know if this is the truth?"

Amon's answer was delayed when they heard something that was not needed at this time. "Moon Scepter Elimination!" Sailor Moon cried out and moments later the tinkling sounds of bells could be heard. The group watched, with slight fear, as the Swords of Revealing Light crumbled under the blonde's attack.

"Damn it!" Yugi hissed from between her teeth.

"Venus Crescent Beam Shower!" Venus added as a shower of orange beams broke through the remains of the barrier only to be countered by Nepha's own attack.

"Jupiter Supreme Thunder Dragon!" Jupiter added summoning a dragon of lightning, which did swallow Nepha and Necrophades only to be easily dispersed by Nepha's power and the tendrils that was still gathering around Necrophades's hands and the Millennium Puzzle.

"I advise against summoning creatures here." Amon whispered to the teens. Neither Ryou or Malik had thought about pulling their decks.

"Why?" Malik demanded, roughly yanking on Amon's hair. The older blonde glared down at his hikari briefly, then sighed.

"Normally I would be foolish to take Necophades's rants at face value, but he has no reason to lie about his assumptions of this place. I don't know what will happen if offensive beings are summoned to fight here, since the defensive summons obviously still work." Amon answered, biting his bottom lip. "Maybe, possibly… no matter what answer I give it will be all assumptions."

"Damn it, now we'll either have to act like MacGuyver or hope for the best." Yugi sneered, glaring daggers at the scouts. "Malik, got any duct tape hiding in your pockets?"

"Enough talk!" Nepha snarled turning to them and throwing a couple energy attacks, forcing the four to scattered. Yugi and Ryou scrambled to the right and found refuge behind two nearest columns, backs pressed to the stone, barely keeping their balance as the ground violently trembled with the force of her attack. At the same time Malik and Amon barely dodged to the left as her attacks impacted where they had been standing and sent sand into the air.

"Venus Love-Me Chain Encircle!"

"Jupiter Supreme Thunder Dragon!"

"Moon Scepter Elimination!"

Malik and Amon recovered quickly, getting to their feet and hiding behind the columns on the other side of the court yard. They missed the three attacks combined into one, instead of Nepha countering this one Necrophades brought a hand up and threw his own attack. Both attacks combined in mid air and created a blinding white light, causing all those in the open minus Necrophades to shield their eyes, and something odd happened when the light faded. A brief scream of shock could be heard throughout the courtyard. As those in the open blinked away the spots in their vision, Yugi and the others poked their heads out from behind the columns and seen a dazed Chisis sprawled out in the middle of the battlefield.

"What happened? Where am I?" Chisis slurred sitting up, rubbing his head. Yugi darted from her safe place behind the column, intent on grabbing Chisis and dragging him to safety before anyone realized he was there. Unfortunately Nepha was the first to realize what happened and who arrived. "Yugi?" he asked turning his head to the side and squinting. "You're supposed to be in the future, did you just get back?." It was at that moment his sluggish mind seemed to wake up.

"I never thought I would get a chance to kill the bastard son of my sister!" Nepha cackled and flicked a ball of energy in Chisis's direction. Yugi snarled out a brief curse and pushed her stamina to its limits in order to get to the defenseless Chisis. When she got within a couple feet of the teen she slid forward feet first, trying desperately to call worth the power she had the day Birdie nearly took her and Ami prisoners. Her slide came to a stop and she wrapped her arms around Chisis, placing her body between him and the oncoming attack.

"No!" Chisis shouted in protest, which Yugi ignored in favor of tightening her grip around him. "Yugi!" he cried out bringing his hands up to grip her shoulders, tears coursing down his cheeks. Yugi sucked in a few deep breaths, bracing herself for attack.

She hoped that this gamble would work.

_Lady Luck, please don't turn away from me just yet. _Yugi mentally prayed, squeezing her eyes shut as the attack impacted her back. Please.

* * *

**Tea-Cup Ride: **Possibly just a Disney thing, but according to my friend it has variants (which I agree, but two minds are better then one in most cases). This ride, basically, spins around as fast as the people want it to (or are able to make it go).

**A/N:** Not beta'd and the grammar will probably be terrible. I don't like the set up for Microsoft Works versus Microsoft Word for grammar, especially something that is close to 100 pages long, so I apologize if anything glares back. If I didn't state something clear enough drop me a line and I'll fix it. Thanks.


	42. Trio: BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE, CLIMAX

**12. BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE, PART II: CLIMAX**

_Did you ever walk up  
To the edge of a cliff  
Stare into the abyss  
As your mind wonders if_

_You should take one more step  
Further into that night  
Well your mind says you won't  
But your heart says you might_

_Would you fall through the dark  
Feel the wind in your hair  
Would you embrace the ground  
And end your life right there_

- _Epiphany, _by Trans-Siberian Orchestra from the album _Night Castle, Disc 2_

* * *

Amon gritted his teeth as he heard Yugi let out a painful scream and the entire area around her and Chisis was obscured by sand. Glancing to the side he seen Malik had flinched and was now trembling with pent up anger, obviously wanting to rush blindly after his sister. Amon thought that Yugi's decision was rash and possibly suicidal, but he couldn't fault her decision since he would have done the same thing if he had the chance. A brief moment of silence covered the area before the Scouts began to cry out, pleading with Chibi-Usa despite the fact that Nepha had absolute control. Amon rolled his eyes and scoffed at their foolish persistence.

_Pleading for mercy would do nothing against Nepha, they should have realized that by now. _Amon thought sardonically.

The sand settled and Amon could see Nepha looking rather smug. His eyes traveled from the possessed pink haired woman to where Yugi was laying on her side, arms tightly wound around a shocked Chisis. Squinting he noticied something that should have been impossible. "How did she… I thought that…" he brokenly whispered, Malik glancing at him oddly. "Heba's soul was not allowed to be reborn!" he blurted out.

"Don't think too much on the details. Ryou and I did that shortly after it first happened, worse debate ever." Malik told him with a shudder. "We ended up agreeing that it boils down to balance, end of story." Amon huffed at the vague answer, but accepted it since they were not in the proper forum for that discussion. "Shit."

Both blondes squinted a bit, just enough that they could see a charred hole in the back of the white sleeveless robe and a black burn mark on the dark blue under dress. "Thank the gods." Amon whispered reaching out and grabbing Malik by the back of his shirt. The teen was about to make a mad dash into danger, as his sister had done.

"Yugi?" Chisis whispered slowly sitting right up, carefully rolling an unconscious Yugi on to her back. "No, Yugi!" he shouted shaking her, mind racing.

"Atemu's bastard son!" Nepha snarled rushing forward, hands glowing and crackling with energy. Chisis bit his bottom lip and left Yugi's side in favor of running towards the columns where Ryou was hiding. The boy ducked behind a column to the far right of the white haired teen, panting. His shriek of surprise caused everyone to jump when she began throwing punches at the column, a few times her knuckles impacting the columns and taking small chunks as she let out a cold laugh of triumph.

With Nepha distracted by Chisis, Amon finally let go of Malik's shirt. The teen fell face first into the sand, glaring at the older man from over his shoulder despite the face full of sand. Amon hauled him up and drug him across the grounds, away from their semi-safe hiding spot, to where Yugi was still laying unconscious. "Wait a moment, why is Chisis here?" Amon asked getting hit upside the head by a scowling Malik.

"Yugi is injured and you ask that?" Malik spat crouching by his sister and checking for a pulse, smiling when he found a strong and steady one. Amon watched Nepha finally lure Chisis out from behind the column and towards the thrones.

"How are you still alive?" she barked out tossing a crackling energy attack at the running teen. Chisis lunged forward, the attack landing a few feet wide of where he had been, and landed with the corner of the dais digging into his spine. "You're suppose to be dead- just like your stillborn sister and my weak, throne stealing, sister and my pathetic husband!"

"Chibi-Usa, please fight against his dark power! You are stronger then Wiseman." Sailor Moon pleaded, falling to her knees and clasping her hands in front of her with tears in her eyes. "Remember all the good times you had with us! With your parents, the Scouts. What would your father think? Your mother?" Nepha snorted and casually tossed a black attack, crackling with energy, at them.

"Jupiter Thunder Crash!" the brunette scout hastily called out throwing her weakest attack at oncoming attack, successfully hitting it head on and barely countering it.

"No matter, you will die now and be buried unmarked grave to be forgotten!" the possessed woman practically howled, rushing forward to attack the boy.

"My mother was not weak! She was the strongest woman I know and I'd rather be her bastard son then the son of an insane father who committed suicide." Chisis protested scrambling to his feet and up on to the dais, hiding between the closest thrones. Nepha came to a stop balancing on the edge of the dais and looked around for Chisis, ignoring everyone else.

"So everything I put into motion drove him to that?" she giggled clapping her hands together happily.

With Nepha sufficiently distracted Amon decided it was time he took some initiative. He pulled the deck holder from his sash and tossed it at the back of Malik's head, smirking briefly when it made contact. "Give that to your sister, she will need it more then me." Amon told them with a smirk. Ryou immediately moved around the unmoving Malik and grabbed the sand covered deck holder.

"What's that ass doing now?" Malik muttered running a hand through his hair and redoubling his efforts to wake Yugi up. Ryou just watched as Amon stalked towards Nepha's unprotected back, turning his head briefly to glare at Wiseman. Fortunately the phantom was too busy chanting and pulling tendrils of shadows into the Millennium Puzzle to really care what was happening around him.

"My kingdom for smelling salts." Ryou whispered. He began to lightly slap her cheeks, hoping that she wouldn't wake up swinging.

The Scouts and Tuxedo Mask were lost on what they should be doing by this point. Their attacks didn't work, their pleading didn't work, and now they had no real plan on how to approach the odd situation. Instead Tuxedo Mask cautioned the Scouts to observe and stay out of the line of fire, to wait for the perfect moment to attack. They reluctantly agreed to that simple plan and watched as the blonde young man, Amon, pulled two daggers from the folds of his linen attire. Their eyes snapped from him to Nepha, who let out a loud yet another insane laugh while giddily clapping her hands together. "How utterly satisfying! Neither of them deserved happiness, they deserved to lose everything to me! Oh, I bet his suffering was a slow and delicious site to witness!" Nepha gloated with gleeful abandon.

"My back hurts." Yugi mumbled. Ryou's cry of happiness caused the Scouts to jump and stare at them. Yugi's eyes were barely open before both teens tried to nearly smother her in a hug.

"Don't ever do that again." Malik gruffly ordered her carefully letting her go, holding her shoulders in a firm grip. The tender moment was broken by Ryou staring at something else. Yugi carefully turned around and spotted Chisis hiding between two thrones with Nepha still balanced on the edge of the dais and Amon...

"Is he…" Yugi began to ask, eyes wide with a hand covering her mouth.

* * *

An ancient battle cry startled Nepha from her gloating. She spun around and briefly lost her balance, which gave the charging Amon enough of an opening to pause below her bringing one of the blades up to stab her through the middle. She snarled and crossed her arms in front of her fact and barely dodged to the side away from the stab but he brought his second blade up and slashed across her arms. She hit the ground on her side, but Amon didn't give her time to recover. He was on her quickly, landing a solid kick to her ribs that she rolled with.

"Despite what the young Prince has been told, the Pharaoh never committed suicide." Amon spat at her stalking forward with both blades up and ready. "After the death of his beloved Heba he fell into a slight depression but it was after the disappearance of you, Chisis- of his son- that caused him to loose control. Without you he was finally consumed by his grief, which happened at the peak of his mourning period."

"Not possible." the boy whispered in protest covering his ears and squeezing his eyes shut. There was no way Chisis was going believe what the semi-familiar blonde man was telling him, it couldn't be true. Chisis had seen how his father treated him, Uncle Diamond and Uncle Sapphire had agreed with him. "My father hated me!" he shouted in protest.

His protests went unanswered for a few moments. Nepha had gotten to her knees, leaning back on her hands so that she could use both feet to kick at Amon's knees, which he hadn't expected, taking him down like he was nothing. She scrambled up to her feet while he was disoriented and straddled Amon, sturggling to grab one of his blades. Her slender form did nothing to combat Amon's broad and muscular form and he was not giving the weapons up short or being killed, disoriented or not. Instead he began to blindly slashed at her, keeping his wrists from being seized, forcing her to cross her arms in front of her face so he only drew long, shallow gashes on her forearms. With a couple colorful, Egyptian curses she threw herself to the side and off of him before he regained his senses and tried to stab her again.

Nepha growled low in the back of her throat. Rising into a crouch she lowered her arms but this time her hands began to crackle with dark energy yet again. With a cry of pure rage she threw herself forward. "Hold still, _brother _dear!" Nepha snarled. Her power charged nails raked down his left cheek, leaving three painful parallel scratches that had cauterized due to her power into vicious scars that went diagonal from his nose to his jaw. Amon bit his lip and did his best to ignore the burning scratches, forcing himself to keep his blades up and his eyes focused fully on Nepha. She lunged again with her left hand raised, her razor sharp nails to take out both of his eyes, and her right hand pulled back with an energy attack gathering in her palm. Her plan would have been sound if she hadn't gave Amon an opening to sink the blade, in his left, to the hilt into her unprotected right shoulder, disrupting her larger attack. Her shriek of pain seemed to echo in the area and Amon took pleasure in causing the venomous woman pain, until his moment of _**hubris **_cost him dearly. She did jerk back a bit from the force of his stab but her nails still raked across his left eye. Amon stumbled back a few feet, using his free hand to cover his injured eye, but his injured eye stayed on Nepha's collapsed form despite the tears of pain threatening to fall down his face.

"Fine, believe that. Believe the words of the foolish Prince who abandoned us in out time of need, the Prince who _helped_ Nepha and Lunar Queen Callisto Serenity plan the assassination of your beloved Mother while she was most vulnerable." Amon spat baring his teeth. "They kidnapped you when your Father was at his weakest, emotionally at least, and eventually forced us to bind his soul into the Millennium Puzzle before he unleashed his grief and fury upon his own people."

"I was saved from a lifetime of neglect!" Chisis roared standing up. He tried to glare at Amon, but faltered when he seen the smoke escaping from between the blonde young man's fingers and the blade sticking out of Nepha's panting form. "Uncle Diamond told me so, as did my other Uncles and Aunts!"

"They brainwashed you! Your Father adored you, he spent every possible moment he could spare from his duties watching over you, he even told you stories of your Mother when you asked!" he bellowed in rage, looking away from Nepha to coldly stare at the trembling boy. "

Nepha lifted her head enough to see Amon distracted, which was a good thing. Biting back a grunt of effort she grabbed the hilt of the sword and slowly pulled it from her shoulder, biting her lip to repress the urge to cry out in pain. Dropping the blade to the sand beneath her she laid her free hand over the wound and concentrated, pulling on the power Wiseman gifted to her to heal the wound as best she could. Sitting up she looked down at the nearly healed wound and touched what felt to be an ugly puckered scar, which would match the one on her back, and scowled. The scratches made no different, the developing bruises from her falls no difference, but scarring her perfect skin was blasphemy.

_That bastard Amon will die today._ she mentally snarled getting to her feet, kicking off her heeled shoes and then picking the blood and sand covered blade she had discarded. "How dare you!" she snarled, charging at Amon's unprotected back. The man turned slowly, but his eye injury hampered him from seeing the danger and arguing with Chisis had distracted him from his real objective.

* * *

Yugi had surged to her feet when both fighters separated due to their wounds, stumbling a bit when he head spun a bit. "You shouldn't be moving around like that!" Ryou protested getting to his feet, steadying her by her shoulders.

"I got hit in the back, not the head." she protested glaring at him briefly, her look softened a moment later. Ryou was only worried about her health and she couldn't fault him that. "The dizziness has passed, no worries." she assured him, hoping he didn't hear the unspoken _'I hope' _at the end of that weak statement.

"They look lost and useless." Malik whispered jerking a thumb in the direction of the Scouts and Tuxedo Mask, still in a huddle watching the fight. "And, he needs help." he added pointing back at an injured Amon, who was shouting at a now standing and shocked Chisis, who was ignoring the recovering Nepha.

"Before anything, where's my deck?" Yugi asked brushing sand from her new attire. Ryou nervously held out the deck holder he had picked up from the sand to her, which she gratefully accepted.

"You aren't going to summon right? Remember Amon's warning." Ryou hissed watching her open the container and pull her deck out.

"We may need to take that risk since this is a lose-lose situation." Yugi pointed out flipping through the cards, occasionally pausing long enough to slip the occasional one up her sleeve for future use. "Die by Nepha's hands, die by the will of the angry gods that rule the Shadow Realm- which would you prefer?"

"Point taken." Malik reluctantly agreed, Ryou shivering.

"Bad time to ask this, but why did you not take your deck with you?" Ryou nervously asked, but Yugi's fingers never stopped.

"You two were there when Chisis asked me…" she trailed off with a frown. Ryou and Malik's eyes widened as they now remembered what the younger teen had asked her about. The Egyptian God Cards, of which all three were in Yugi's deck and had come close to being in the clutches of their enemies. She tucked three final cards up her left sleeve and slid the remaining cards back into the deck holder and clipped it to the side of her white over robe. "Now that short staff I had last time." she muttered looking around. A moment later she let out a triumphant sound and took a few steps to the left and picked it up.

"So, what are we going to do?" Malik asked watching Nepha get to her feet.

"I think the first priority is making sure Amon isn't killed." Ryou pointed out. Yugi nodded in agreement gripping her short staff, noting the blade in Nepha's hand.

"Shit." Yugi hissed out sprinting towards the distracted Amon at the very same time Nepha lunged for him with bloody blade raised. _I wish I had an idea what I am doing now. _Yugi thought, feeling much like she was running more off instinct then her rational wits.

* * *

Nepha's eyes were open and wild. Amon tried to twist around in order to block the oncoming killing blow only to feel just a bit confused when he witnessed a glowing white ball, coming from someplace or someone behind him, hit the deranged woman in the chest, propelling her back a few feet only to land painful on to her back and the blade went flying further away. "I was hoping that would work, I don't think the staff would have stopped her." a familiar voice nervously laughed. Amon turned all the way around and seen Yugi standing a few feet from him, panting from her brief run through the sand.

"Yugi?" he stuttered out in shock.

"Did you intend to do that?" Malik asked stopping beside Amon. The slightly older blonde assumed that Ryou was on his other side, since they tended to follow one another headlong into trouble.

"I'll take what I can get." Yugi snorted tightening her grip on her short staff. "Grab Chisis and get them both back. After that, if you see an opening, take it." she hissed out marching forward towards Nepha. Sparing no words, which would have fallen on deaf ears anyways, Ryou drug Amon back and away from the dais leaving Malik to stomp over to a shocked Chisis and drug him away from the possible danger zone.

"Don't get yourself killed, Yugi!" Malik called over his shoulder.

Yugi took in a deep breath and tried to tell herself that she had no choice, that the fight would have to be taken up by someone and she was the best option. It was a rather conceited thought, if not screaming of a developing martyr or hero complex. Shaking her head she valiantly tried to push that dangerous line of reasoning to the back of her mind, till she had time to think it through without being distracted.

"Is the little girl going to try and fight me again?" Nepha cooed in a mockingly innocent tone of voice, breaking through Yugi's traitorous thoughts. Her eyes focused on Nepha's fallen form, eyes briefly lingering on the hole burned into the abdomen of the downed woman's black dress and the blistering skin displayed by the hole, then to Nepha's occasionally twitching fingertips. Luckily the possessed woman made no more to get up just yet. Yugi stayed silent, having no words for the deranged woman that ruined so many lives since she had been born all those millennia ago.

Black energy gathered in Nepha's hands, Yugi reacted by squeezing her eyes shut and brought her short staff up in a diagonal slash from hip shoulder. A cry of pain forced her to open her eyes, only to see Nepha sitting up and glaring at her hands. "You _**blocked**_ my power." Nepha hissed out in anger clenching her hands into fists. "A novice fool like you _**stole**_ my _**power!**_" she snarled rising to her feet now staring unwaveringly at Yugi.

"I did?" Yugi asked in clear disbelief. There was no way she could have cut Nepha's powers off, the deranged woman had to be joking. Not only was it theoretically impossible for Yugi, a novice when it came to her newfound abilities, but it was highly improbable with the gab between their abilities! _Didn't Necrophades claim that he gave her some of his power?_ Yugi thought. Distracted by her thoughts Nepha took the opening to tackle Yugi to the sand with a howl of rage.

Nepha managed to knock the breath out of Yugi, the shock of the attack also sending the short staff flying a few feet away. Yugi hit the sand on her still tender back and head, which disoriented her for a few brief moments, thankfully she brought her hands up to seize Nepha's wrists before the possessed woman could wrap her slender fingers around her throat. "Give up, you can't win against me." Nepha spat trying to overpower the teen. Yugi wasn't going to give up easily, if at all, and did her level best to keep Nepha at bay.

"We bound you in the blade from the Millennium Rod during the Battle City finals." Yugi grunted out bucking up against the woman, trying to throw her off. "You trying to win two-out-of-three encounters?" she asked finally managing to get some leverage wit her hip, barely rolling them so that Yugi was on top this time. Not waiting for a response Yugi freed one hand and managed to seize Nepha's nose between her thumb and index finger and put enough pressure to break the woman's nose. Yugi flinched at the scream of pain and was sure everyone else did as well.

Taking the distraction she was off of the woman and reaching for her short staff. She got about two feet when Nepha recovered, angrier then before, and lashed out like a striking serpent, seizing Yugi's ankle between her claw like nails and roughly pulling her back. Yugi let out a brief cry of pain, swearing she felt her knee dislocate for a brief second, and hit the sandy ground hard. Burying her gloved hands into the soft sand she tried to stay where she was, but lost ground with every painful yank back towards her enemy. The sand slipped through her fingers and she growled in annoyance, then froze with her eyes wide.

Sand! She was surrounded by the best weapon possible!

Rolling on to her back, further twisting her injured leg, and sitting up Yugi seized two fists full of sand and hurled them at Nepha. The woman let out a cry of pain, letting go of Yugi's ankle in favor of trying to get the sand from her eyes. "I'll make sure your death is a slow one for that!" Nepha howled in outrage. For good measure Yugi threw two more fists full before attempting to crab walk towards her short staff. She stopped when her fingertips brushed over the smooth body of the staff. Letting out the breath she had been holding in, watching Nepha struggle to get the grains of sands from her eyes, she pulled it free of the sand and gripped it in both hands in front of her.

"How dare you people attack my future daughter!" Yugi heard Sailor Moon roar in anger from behind her. "She doesn't know what she is doing and doesn't deserve to be attacked!"

_Damn it._ Yugi thought repressing the urge to flop back and groan. _Now they take a stand, but the wrong side… which isn't that surprising, is it?_ She cut her own mental rant off and cautiously looked over her shoulder, hoping Nepha didn't recover in her moment of distraction, at the defiant looking Scouts led by Sailor Moon.

"Oh joy, now they are attempting to do something useful." Malik loudly tell Ryou and Amon rather sardonically.

Venus and Jupiter were on one knee flanking Sailor Moon, who held a **floating crystal **between her spread hands with a determined look. Tuxedo mask laid a gloved hand on her shoulder and a moment later their attire changed- she now wore a pristine white dress dripping with pearls with a blossomed crystal between her hands and he black armor with a sword at his waist. "I will not stand for my future daughter to be abused as such!" Sailor Moon, now in her Princess Serenity form, reiterated.

_Will her crystal work here?_ Yugi asked herself, turning her attention back to Nepha. The possessed woman had slightly swollen eyes but had not moved towards Yugi, instead she was watching the Scouts with a look that clearly told anyone that she thought the Scouts were nuts. Against Yugi's better judgment she ignored Nepha and dropped her staff into her lap before she drew the cards she had slipped up both sleeves before engaging the possessed woman.

All but three were returned to her deck holder, which had amazingly enough, stayed clicked to her outer white robe. Taking in a deep breath Yugi sandwiched the cards between her hands, closed her eyes, and tried to ignore the fact that she looked like she was praying.

* * *

Malik and Ryou didn't have an idea what they could do to help Yugi when she attacked Nepha. Seeing their helplessness Amon had told them to watch the Scouts, all the while pulling a belt from around his waist and deftly tying up and eventually gagging a defiant Chisis, for any signs of life or brains. So instead of rushing in blind to help Yugi, and possibly making the situation worse, the two had settled for Ryou watching the Scouts every move, since Amon was right about the fact that they still have a chance to get involved in the fight, and Malik watching his sister, waiting for the right moment to attack Nepha.

Sometime during the silent stand off between the two groups something snapped in the Scouts huddle, Ryou noted. This coincided with Malik snorting when Yugi started to throw sand into Nepha's face and crawled backwards towards something.

Sailor Moon got to her feet, looking rather enraged, and the others with her followed. When the blonde girl pulled a crystal from her broach Venus and Jupiter fell to one knee on either side of her with their heads slightly bowed. Malik looked away from his sister's back when the crystal began to pulse. "How dare you people attack my future daughter!" Sailor Moon roared with a frown and head held high, like she was defending someone truly innocent and defenseless. "She doesn't know what she is doing and doesn't deserve to be attacked!"

"Oh joy, now they are attempting to do something useful." Malik loudly and sardonically declared. Ryou bit his lip to keep from laughing out loud, more so when he noted that Venus, Jupiter, and Tuxedo Mask glared at briefly him for his comment. That was when the attire of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask changed to a fancy white dress and black armor and a true weapon, a sword, at his hip.

"I will not stand for my future daughter to be abused as such!" Sailor Moon, now Princess Serenity, confidently informed everyone yet again. This time she brought the bloomed crystal above her head and a pink light began to gather around the blossomed crystal.

"Anyone else have a feeling of impending doom and despair?" Malik muttered, wearily eyeing the glowing crystal in the Scouts possession.

"Moon Cosmic Power!" Princess Serenity intoned, but both Ryou and Malik could see a smug smirk curling her lips. The power gathered and began to expand outwards slowly. Amon wasn't paying attention to the scouts, no he was watching to see what Nepha and Yugi would do in response to the Scouts move. He watched as Yugi slowly got to her feet, leaning pretty much all of her weight on her left leg, the short staff dropping to the sand at her feet and turned to face the Scouts. What really confused him was why she looked like she was praying.

"We stand in your court, please appear before us." Yugi stated clearly and rather loudly. "Please appear before us, Obelisk the Tormentor and Giant-God Soldier! Osiris the Dragon of the Sky! Ra the Winged-God Dragon!" Yugi finished falling to her knees, biting her lip to muffle her cry of pain, pulling her hands a part. Three cards fluttered from between her palms, landing on the sand before her.

"Pathetic." Tuxedo Mask, now Prince Endymion, sneered with a haughty look.

Whatever he was about to gloat about was lost when the ground beneath everyone trembled and two loud roars deafened everyone.

* * *

_**Hubris:**_ Playing this safe and assuming not everyone knows what this term is. I am pretty sure this is Greek or Roman for "pride."

**Floating Crystal:** Yes, this is the Silver Imperium Plot Point Crystal (Sailor Moon Abridged is credited with that title) and yes it is working and not being canceled out by its future counterpart. I am working under the assumption that Chibi-Usa either a) never touched the Future SIPPC and that said crystal was shattered when Neo-Queen Serenity was put into her forced sleep, or b) Wiseman smashed the crystal to dust when he took her and twisted her into Dark Lady with Nepha possessing her, or c) Pluto misplaced it. You can draw your own conclusions.


	43. Trio: BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE, RESOLUTION

With this final part of Part 13, pretty much this entire part was outlined by S2teennovelist awhile back and it gave me something to work to now.

* * *

**13. BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE, PART III: RESOLUTION**

_On this night_  
_Hold me tight_  
_Feel my heart_  
_Beating there..._

_Did you ever walk up_  
_To the edge of a cliff_  
_Stare into the abyss_  
_As your mind wonders if_

_You should take one more step_  
_Further into that night_  
_Well your mind says you won't_  
_But then this all is your life_

- _Epiphany, _Trans-Siberian Orchestra from the album _Night Castle, Disc 2_

* * *

When Amon heard Yugi's plea he had originally thought she was bluffing. He was proven wrong in his assumptions when his entire body froze at the sudden feeling of something powerful and dangerous pulling on his power, specifically on his connection to the Shadows. The roar only further shattered his assumption. Spitting out a curse in his native tongue he strode forward and knocked Ryou and Malik to the ground then fell to his knees himself with his head bowed. "Did she just…" Ryou whispered only to be cut off when Amon brought a hand up and tilted his head down.

"Against all possible odds, yes. Yugi just summoned three Egyptian Gods." Amon muttered in response closing his uninjured eye, barely ignoring the pain in his injured one. Another roar rattled their bones and the ground, sending anyone still on their feet to their knees.

"Shit." Malik muttered glancing around for the source of the noise. He spotted Wiseman, still gathering tendrils of shadows around the Millennium Puzzle, oblivious to what was going on around him.

"Don't worry about him." Amon hissed drawing Malik's attention back to him.

_**"Impudent child!"** _a voice boomed. All eyes turned to thrones where a impossible tall, tanned man with broad shoulders appeared in front of the throne to the left of the middle one. He wore typical garb of an Egyptian royal only colored black with a scimitar at his right him and a battle axe on his back. His face was covered by a blue mask that looked to be molded to his strong features. "_**You dare use your pathetic magic tricks in the heart of our Realm against those who fall under our jurisdiction?"** _he bellowed stalking from the dais towards the now trembling Princess Serenity and glaring Prince Endymion.

"We only want to save her!" Serenity cried out. The man glared down at her causing her to further shrink into the embrace of her lover.

_**"Save who? The Egyptian Queen that destroys all she touches or the child that you forever torture by not letting her grow up?"** _the god dryly asked. The sightless eyes of the masked man stared them down, making the Scouts feel like they were really peering into his eyes.

"Who do you think you are? We are the Sailor Scouts, reborn princess of the Silver Millennium…" Venus began to rant surging to her feet. She got within a few feet of the god, who flicked his wrist, before she screamed and hit the sand writhing in pain.

"Venus!" Serenity loudly sobbed trying to pull away from Endymion.

_**"I am Obelisk the Giant-God Soldier, also called The Tormentor."** _the god introduced turning on his heel and stalking back to the thrones. He sat down with the lazy grace of a cat, slumping with his hands gripping the arms of his dark stoned throne.

_**"You still have yet to answer his question, remnants of the Silver Millennium."** _a dry, aloof voice pointed out. The next god to appear, in human form at that, was shorter then Obelisk but wore a golden helmet in the shape of a falcon only with scales._** "Do amuse us with your answer."**_

"Both!" Serenity howled lifting her crystal up, careful to keep it cupped between her trembling hands. "Nepha can be saved, she can be good and Chibi-Usa is my daughter. Neither one has to be killed or treated as they have been in this fight." The second God snorted in response.

_**"Your answer is amusing, yet foolish."** _Obelisk sighed waving a hand. _**"What say you, Ra? Do you believe that former Queen Nepha, wife of Pharaoh Atemu, can redeem herself before her ba is weighed?"**_

_**"Her ba has been weighed, by the scales that had been in Dark Paladin Shadi's possession at the peak of our power."** _Ra reminded Obelisk, shaking his head. _**"She had a chance of redemption within the Tauk that was once Queen Heba's, another chance when the grave keeper Isis Ishtar released her from the Tauk, yet she squandered both chances."**_

_**"The decision concerning former queen Nepha shall not be changed."** _a third voice growled out, ending all talk of the matter. A green skinned man with a **black goatee **appeared, regally sitting on the middle throne, looking over all those gathered in the court. He wore the typical attire of a pharaoh, from the white tunic with a wide gold belt around his waist to the crown perched on his brow with two large feathers sticking out either side, only his legs were partially wrapped in bandages. _**"We know not this one you refer to as Chibi-Usa and whatever happens to her is none of our concern."**_

"You are gods, you have the ability to!" Jupiter shouted getting to her feet and glaring at the three men on the thrones. Amon glanced towards Yugi and Nepha, noting that both were kneeling with heads bowed. Mentally swearing a blue streak he bowed his head then brought both of his hands up and pushed Ryou and Malik's head down.

_**"Our interests lie in the present, not in those of the future."** _Ra informed her, eyes narrowed. "_**Your concern for the one you call Chibi-Usa does not concern us."** _he waved a hand in dismissal.

"Don't make any sudden moves till they acknowledge us." he hissed to the two teens. When Amon was sure that they would not lift their heads he left his hands slide down their back.

_**"Stand and approach us, Yugi Motou of the eastern island called Japan."** _Osiris intoned. Yugi's friends and Amon flinched at the demand from the god.

* * *

Yugi quickly gathered the three Egyptian God Cards from the sand in front of her, slipping them back up her sleeve, and left her short staff where it laid before getting to her feet. She valiantly tried to ignore the pain in her leg, when she put some weight on it, and took a few steps towards the dais. Then she lifted her head and stared at the three Gods for a moment or two before stopping a foot or two from the edge of the dais. _**"You show no fear in the fact of us."** _Ra observed tapping his finger son the arm of his throne. _**"We could kill you where you stand for your show of disrespect."**_

"Would you rather I show fear in the face of my possible death or meet it head on and accept whatever will happen to me without fear? No matter what I do I see things being the same either way." she bravely informed them, proud that she had kept her voice calm. Inside she was a nervous wreck and wondering why the hell she was talking back to three powerful beings that could kill her with twitch of a finger.

Everyone waited for the axe to fall. Yugi expected to feel the same pain that Venus had minutes earlier when she smarted off, but felt nothing. A deep laugh caused her to stand a bit stiffer.

_**"Such spirit from one of this odd time."** _Obelisk chuckled ignoring the odd looks he received from his fellow gods.

"I'm glad you understood whatever I just said." she muttered. She nervously shifted most of her weight to her good foot and patiently waited for them to tell her what they wanted.

_**"In summoning us as you did, Yugi Motou, do you understand the consequences you will be facing?"** _Osiris asked looking down on the teenage girl, who lifted her head enough to meet his ageless gaze.

"I followed my instincts." she informed him nervously lacing her fingers together behind her. "If there are consequences I will accept them and I am not just saying that because I have no choice in the matter."

_**"Good, you would not have liked what happens to those unwilling…"** _Osiris began to inform her, a pleased smile curling his thin lips.

"_May this sacred light purify the evil and destroy the darkness!_" Serenity defiantly bellowed. Yugi turned in time to be blinded by the pulsating pink light that came from the crystal Serenity held. The injured teen slapped a hand over her eyes and turned away from them. Some part of her wondered if she could kill the Scouts after this and blame it on Wiseman…

"You honestly think that your puny crystal can defeat a realm of darkness? Defeat Gods that have been around longer then your arrogant, weak village kingdom?" Wiseman cackled, reminding everyone that he was still in the courtyard and still relatively alive. Yugi let her hand drop from her eyes, rapidly blinking away spots. "The Silver Millennium was stretched too thin among all those planets and ruled by the weakest of places- the Moon. Why do you think Queen Callisto wanted to marry you off to the simpering so-called Prince of Earth? She needed an army to secure her power."

"Oh joy, another obscure history lesson." Ryou groaned, yelping a moment later. "Quit hitting me, Amon!" Yugi turned to face her friend and brother, eyebrow arched, but was ignored since the two were attempting to knock Amon out.

"Her so-called pure power could not hold a candle to that of the power that the royal family, of what is now called Egypt, held even before they took possession of my Millennium Items. When the Shadow Realms backed the Pharaoh they became nigh unstoppable." Wiseman continued lifting the now glowing Millennium Puzzle in front of him, mimicking how Serenity was holding her crystal. "Now, with the Millennium Puzzle back in my grasp, the Shadow Realm will now serve me!" he declared boldly, ignoring the fact that the three Egyptian Gods did not look amused.

_**"Is that so, foolish sorcerer?"** _Obelisk deadpanned resting a hand on the hilt of his scimitar.

"I created these items-"

"Of which there is only three of seven here." Yugi cut in glancing back at her brother briefly. "Correction, two."

"Sorry, I forgot about the Millennium Rod in the chaos." Malik admitted blushing embarrassment.

"Would have been useless anyways." Amon assured them.

"-of which the Millennium Puzzle would be the key to controlling this entire Realm!" he cackled, as if he hadn't been interrupted. The Millennium Puzzle glowed faintly and that was when Wiseman turned to the three Gods with it raised. "Now you will bow to me."

"Down!" Amon bellowed. Yugi immediately collapsed to her knees, only letting out a brief scream of pain, barely avoiding the whistle of something passing by her head.

_**"Good call, Guard Amon."** _Ra complimented the blonde young man, voice even and indifferent, with a nod. Yugi lifted her head and touched her cheek, having felt something warm sliding down her jaw line. Her fingers came away with a smear of blood. Seconds or minutes later there was a unearthly shriek that drew everyone's attention to where Wiseman had been.

"Damn." Ryou whispered in awe. It had been Obelisk who flashed past Yugi, blade drawn, in the blink of an eye. From the way it looked he had also sliced through the Millennium Puzzle and Wiseman in one slice. The shriek was Wiseman feeling the pain of the God's blade passing through whatever made up his body then slowly being pulled a part by the very shadows he tried to harness with the Millennium Puzzle.

"Let me purify him with my crystal!" Serenity cried out crystal glowing again. Obelisk turned to her, face blank, and raised his blade so it was level to his eyes.

_**"Silence, foolish Princess. Your power is worthless here."** _Osiris informed her slamming his palms down on the arms of his throne, drawing attention back to him. _**"We have digressed enough, it is now time to get to the point of this summons."** _he reminded them turning his attention to the still shell shocked Yugi.

"I demand my freedom!" Nepha boldly declared getting to her feet. "I hereby challenge the champion of the Shadow Realm, your pathetic champion." In her twisted mind she believed that the Gods would summon her husband from where ever he may be lurking to fight her. "To the death, of course."

_**"You demand?"** _Ra echoed with a bark of cold laughter._** "Who do you believe yourself to be, former Queen, to make such demands of us?"**_

_**"I say we indulge the arrogant bitch."** _Obelisk snorted returning to his throne, but his eyes were solely on Yugi.

_**"Agreed."** _Osiris intoned after a moment of thought, lacing his fingers together in front of him so that only his elbows rested on the arms of his throne. _**"The question is, who shall our champion be in this challenge?"** _he mused glancing at all those present, from the fearful or defiant faces of the Scouts to the plotting faces of the three that helped Yugi.

"The guardian of the Shadow Realms, of course! You fools, being before me Pharaoh Atemu to die at my hand!" Nepha spat out storming towards the dais, forgetting whom she was mouthing off to.

_**"Technically his physical body has died and when his soul was bound to the Millennium Puzzle we declared him to be one of this Realm's citizens, therefore he cannot be its guard."** _Osiris casually informed her lips curled in amusement. _**"Therefore a new champion will be decreed, in honor of the changing times and a new generation. Whom should we choose, is the question."**_

_**"Guard Amon is out, he is a citizen of the Realm as well."** _Ra pointed out. _**"The two teens with him are still untouched by our power."**_

_**"As were their previous incarnations before they entered the cycle."** _Osiris muttered staring down at Yugi this time. She blinked a few times and her eyes widened, everything happening finally registering.

"Wait a moment…" Yugi whispered eyes narrowing and dismissing the scouts in the running to be chosen.

_**"I will not protest this test."** _Obelisk announced, slouching back with a wide grin. _**"It should prove interesting."**_

_**"This burden will then be placed on the shoulders of the one who summoned us. If she proves herself strong enough in front of us then we shall place upon her shoulders the responsibility of guarding our Realm."** _Osiris announced getting to his feet and turned to stare at the now scowling Nepha. _**"Yugi Motou, you accept what we are asking of you?"** _He snapped his fingers and Yugi felt the shadows coiling around her, dulling her few pains.

"I don't really have a choice now, do I?" Yugi sighed getting to her feet, hunching forward just a bit.

* * *

Nepha didn't wait a for Yugi to recover after she got to her feet and issued her answer. The possessed woman let out a battle cry, which sounded more like a shriek bird of prey, launching herself at Yugi. "Die!" Nepha roared only for Yugi to side step, sticking a leg out tripping the possessed woman. Nepha hit the sand face first, getting to her knees sputtering just as Yugi threw herself on to Nepha's back sending the possessed woman face first into the sand yet again.

Gritting her teeth Yugi shoved her fingers into the roots of Nepha's hair, between the two cone shaped buns, and wretched her head back. Nepha let out a grunt of pain that was soon smothered by Sand when Yugi shoved her head forward into the sand, doing her level best to continue straddling Nepha's back despite Nepha's attempts to buck her off. Yugi growled in the back of her throat before yanking Nepha's head back up, the possessed woman sputtering.

"Where's that power you had before?" Yugi snarled tightening her knees against Nepha's ribs. Everything Yugi had done, to this point, when it came to fighting was more instinct then experience. She was an only child, ignored by a majority of the children or teenagers he attended with in school, never took a lesson in any self defense, and the sudden appearance of this vicious nature was starting to really scare her.

"Shut up and fight." Nepha spat out throwing all the weight she could into rolling Yugi to the side, turning the tables. The teen immediately brought her hands up, managing to lace her fingers together with Nepha's before they could find her throat. Now it was a battle of body and wills to see who could overcome the other. "I don't need Wiseman's power to kill you. You are as weak as my husband was and still is, since he technically has a physical body now." she chuckled darkly forcing their hands down, enjoying the leverage she had on the other by straddling Yugi's chest .

"Weak would be you, the most vicious parasite ever. You need others to live since you can't gather enough power together manifest a permanent body." Yugi grunted trying to force their hands back up, but failing against the possessed woman's strength.

"I don't need a body when I can jump from person to person without losing my power or beauty." Nepha smugly informed Yugi, disappointed when Yugi didn't look shocked at the admission. Instead the teen pushed up with all she had lifting her upper body off of the sand till she was nearly nose-to-nose with the possessed woman.

"You are the ugliest bitch I've ever met." Yugi laughed before head butting Nepha, managing to hit Nepha's still broken nose. The possessed woman reared back in pain and Yugi didn't let her pull her hands away, instead the teen shoved forward toppling Nepha back before letting the possessed woman's hands go and scrambling back till her back hit the dais. Planting her palms on the dais Yugi got to her feet then lunged forward when Nepha shakily got to her feet, landing a good right hook to the possessed woman's ribs briefly knocking the breath from her lungs.

"That's it!" Nepha gasped holding a hand to her bruised ribs. Yugi brought her other hand up, fingers curled into a fist, but did not get a chance to pull her arm back when Nepha hooked a foot around her knee and pulled one leg out from under her. Yugi fell backwards with a yelp of surprise, rolling away seconds before a bare foot stomped where her stomach would have been. Yugi grabbed a handful of sand and tossed it up at Nepha's face, hoping that the same trick would work a second time. "Nice try." Nepha laughed avoiding the sand and taking a few quick steps forward kicking Yugi in the ribs.

"Had to try." Yugi gasped barely avoiding the next kick.

"Try this then." Nepha hissed drawing her dark power together in the palm of her hand. Yugi froze in shock, eyes wide, and tried to move backwards out of reach but her moment of hesitation did her in. Nepha laughed bringing her attack down on to Yugi's left leg, not realizing until it was too late that her prey had moved. Yugi let out a scream of pain when the dark power touched just below her knee. The teenager could feel the bone shatter, her skin blister, and it was the worst feeling she had ever felt outside of her first experience wearing the Millennium Tauk back in Battle City. "Poor dear is in pain? This is what it is like to play in the big leagues, little girl."

"Joy." Yugi growled through her pain, through the tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. Her mind was racing now, watching Nepha gather energy for another attack with an unholy gleam in her eyes. Yugi barely avoided that attack, but it did graze her left side scorching fabric and bruising skin. The next few attacks either impacted around her or barely missed her, but marks were left and Yugi was in pain with every move she made.

"Now you will die." Nepha informed Yugi gathering the largest attack between both hands.

"No!" Yugi shrieked wildly thrusting both of her hands out in front of her, eyes squeezed shut. There was a brief moment of silence before the sound of a wet cough broke the silence. Yugi cracked open her eyes and seen the possessed woman laying on the sand, her dress burnt even further, hands over her mouth.

_**"Finish her."** _Obelisk barked out. Yugi turned her head and glared briefly at him.

_**"Former Queen Nepha declared this challenge to the death."** _Ra reminded Yugi with a pointed look. The teen frowned and literally drug her form to where Nepha was still laying, coughing up what sounded to be her lung._** "What will you do, Yugi Motou?"**_

"With your permission, may I use an attack that draws upon the power of your Realm?" she rasped out, heart heavy with what she was about to do.

_**"If you use this attack we, and our Realm, will forever have a hold on your soul."** _Osiris solemnly informed her, face an emotionless mask. The other two looked curious about what would happen. Yugi didn't say a thing instead she let her actions speak for her.

"Yugi?" Malik and Ryou asked in unison, but she didn't look at them. Yugi sat beside Nepha, ignoring when the possessed woman blindly reached out for her. Their eyes met, Yugi's sad and painful gaze to Nepha's narrow and angry. Ignoring the hand Yugi pressed a finger to Nepha's forehead.

**"Mind Crush."** she intoned, voice level.

Those two words were the last thing that Amon, Chisis, Malik, and Ryou heard before they blacked out.

* * *

Ami and Strings returned to Benefrit's house a couple hours later and they either had great, or terrible, timing depending on the view of the person. The front door clicked shut when four people, three recognized and one unknown, dropped into the living room. Neither Atemu or Zuka flinched at the cursing or the shrieks of surprise, both still out of it and looking to be sleeping, when the four landed with a heavy thump in the living room. "Where's everyone else?" Rei blurted out pulling Ryou from the pile, since he had been on top.

"Not sure." he muttered rubbing his temples. "Everything went bright, then dark, and then painful and here we are." Rei dropped him back to the floor where he sat glaring at her back as she made her way over to a nervous Ami, who was clutching the hem of her shirt in a white knuckled grip.

"The Gods did it for a reason." the blonde young man grumbled moving off of Malik before sharp elbows could be used against him.

"No shit." Malik growled sitting up, rubbing his now sore shoulder since he had hit the ground on his side. "That explains so well why we are here and Yugi isn't. Care to be a bit more specific?" he snarled at the young man before Youko bowled him over in a hug, almost sobbing in relief.

"I know it isn't that important, but why's Chisis trussed up like a fancy birthday gift?" Strings asked edging far enough into the living room then moved to untie her boyfriend.

"It was our best chance to ensure he wouldn't get himself, or us, killed. He's as headstrong as his father when it comes to certain things but lacks his mother's level head." the blonde young man answered slowly rising to his feet and turning to her, one eye shut and half of his face covered with blood dried. He politely nodded to strings, the teenage girl blushing before crouching by her boyfriend and poking his bindings.

"Is that so?" Benefrit asked with a brief bark of laughter, drawing his attention to her.

"Queen Benefrit!" he yelped falling to his knees with his head bowed.

"Amon, honestly. If it hasn't registered in your head yet I am not Queen anymore." the red haired woman gently assured him. She crossed the short distance between them and kneeled in front to him, sliding her fingerstips under his chin and raising his head. "I am only a mother and as normal as a person can be with the power that flows in my veins."

"Of course your… um…" he trailed off blushing, which couldn't be seen beneath the dried blood.

"Please call me Benefrit, or Satou-san." she cut in attempting to dispel the latest awkward moment. Benefrit glanced at Youko, who wasn't letting go of Malik anytime soon, and then as Rei and Ami, who were leaning over String's shoulder teasing a now wiggling Chisis who was still bound. "One question, where's Yugi?"

"The last thing we seen was her using the attack 'Mind Crush' on Nepha who was possessing a pink haired girl." Amon immediately answered without looking away from the now pale former Negaverse Queen. "The Gods were discussing something…"

"Wait a moment, Yugi did what?" Benefrit demanded feeling her chest tighten just a bit. Whatever possessed Yugi to try and use that attack when she had no dark power, no power over the Shadows it would summon. she thought biting her lower lip and sitting back on her heels.

"She actually pulled off a 'Mind Crush' without Yami overshadowing or possessing her." Ryou answered running a hand through his dusty hair. "In Yugi's defense, she really give have much of a choice. From the way the Gods were saying they wouldn't have let her go, Nepha challenging her to a fight to the death didn't help matters either." he continued to tell them. That was all Youko needed to hear before she burst out into tears and drug Malik over to where Ryou was and crush them both into a hug.

"Back to the waiting game." Ami whimpered hugging a solemn Rei.

"It is safe to assume we are in the final act." Benefrit assure them bowing her head. "Let's just hope that Yugi returns to us in one piece, mentally and physically."

Amon didn't have the heart to tell the woman what the Gods had planned for Yugi. Glancing at Ryou and Malik he noted that the two teens obviously didn't know how to tell the two women either. The unspoken agreement was to explain what had been discussed before the duel began once Yugi returned.

* * *

_**Ba: **_From what most sources say this is the Ancient Egyptian word (and concept) of soul.

**Black goatee: **The description given about Osiris says "pharaoh's beard" and that can be almost anything and with creative license already being used in this fic I figured a goatee would work just as well.

_May this sacred light purify the evil and destroy the darkness! _: I'm paraphrasing this from book four of the manga, not sure what page but it was before Chibi-Usa arrived. Figured it was a nice change since I already used the nearly infamous anime battle cry, "Moon Cosmic Power!" Also it sounds more… dramatic, especially with how I am portraying the scouts.

**A/N: **I know that Zorc is supposed to be this world destroying, all intimidating, ugly ass demon. Really, a demon didn't really fit in when a majority of the antagonist of this "What If" saga and I had him set up as a sorcerer… so the Wiseman phantom look is as close to demon as he got. (I don't know why I had the urge to clarify that, no one has complained about the lack of purity in this fan fiction… minus the one request to avoid the Sailor Moon crossover.) The Gods got human forms since having them in larger-than-life, mythical creature forms didn't seem... practical for the meeting.

On another note I'm not all together pleased with this but not disappointed. Most of my goal is to get the second part of this Chronicle finished before I leave at the beginning of the second week in February, since I have no guarantee of being able to work on this till the beginning of April or even as late as December 2011.


	44. Trio: DARK CONSEQUENCES

**14. DARK CONSEQUENCES**

_Are you scared of the dark_  
_Are you afraid they'll break your heart_  
_Are you afraid you'll lose yourself_  
_Are you afraid of your own health_

_Are you scared to lose_  
_Are you afraid to choose_  
_Are you afraid you'll win_  
_Are you scared of your own sin_

_Are you scared to forgive_  
_Are you afraid to live_  
_Are you afraid to die_  
_Do you think you told a lie_

- _Fear, _Pauley Perrette from the _NCIS Soundtrack: Disc 2_

* * *

**"Mind Crush."**

Those two words sent Nepha spiraling out control of the body she had forcibly took over and into a dark corridor that symbolized the barrier between her soul room, with no door, and Chibi-Usa's, the heavily chained door breakdown quickly. "No!" she shrieked out trying to reassert control over the body, but nothing happened. The chained door then shattered outward and a solemn pink haired young woman stood regally, wearing a knee length lavender sundress and no shoes, staring at her blankly. "This is my body!"

"No, it isn't." Chibi-Usa calmly informed her, looking at a spot over Nepha's shoulder. "This is my body, this is my mind."

"You couldn't fight me when I took over, what makes you think you will win now?" Nepha snarled stalking towards the young woman with teeth bared in a feral grin and hands curled into fists.

"Your soul was in control of the body, the attack is meant for you." a tired, yet familiar voice answered. Chibi-Usa's eyes widened when she seen the shadows of the corridor form into a figure. "My intent was to deal with you, Nepha, not Chibi-Usa." Nepha rounded on the figure and launched herself at it with a roar of anger.

"No!" Chibi-Usa shouted eyes wide with fear. The dark spirit didn't reach the figure, who finished forming into a tired looking Yugi, since thin chains of shadows lashed out and hauled Nepha backwards past a still shocked Chibi-Usa into the darkness at the far end of corridor. "What just happened?" she asked staring at Yugi in fear.

"I guess that is the attack at work." Yugi shrugging moving slowly towards the still fearful Chibi-Usa. "I never seen what happened when Yami used it and I had no idea what would happen when I used it with the God's blessing."

"Why did you spare me?" Chibi-Usa asked clasping her hands together in front of her, to keep from twiddling her thumbs as she tended to do when nervous. "I stole what you bound that… that… thing into and forced you to…" she trailed off biting her bottom lip, never once looking away from the teenager.

Yugi didn't say a thing a first, if anything she looked to be contemplating her answer.

"I have a slight past with Nepha. I knew she was bat shit insane and what she could do to those around her." Yugi explained without looking away. "You may have come off as a brat, a whiny spoiled one at that, but you didn't deserve what Wiseman did to you." That statement caused something in Chibi-Usa to snap.

"After everything my parents and Crystal Tokyo did to you and your own?" she demanded grabbing Yugi's shoulders. "My parents historians painted you, as in you and not your future self, to be a cold and calculating person that was out for power! I grew up thinking that Queen Yugi was a cult leader that bolstered her husbands power with human sacrifices."

"I'm Japanese, not Mayan." Yugi assured the young woman, ignoring as Chibi-Usa's fingers dug harder into her shoulders.

"I never thought my parents would lie to everyone, never questioned anything." Chibi-Usa sobbed her knees giving out. Yugi reacted quickly, wrapping an arm around the young woman's waist and slowed her fall down. "I watched everything that happened from where she imprison red me. I seen the Scouts do nothing to help, felt Nepha's disgusting pleasure at injuring the blonde man, and her euphoria when she injured you. I heard the Scouts think the worst of you…"

"I chalk that up to being conditioning from their supposed past memories." Yugi cut in letting Chibi-Usa sob into her chest.

"That isn't a good excuse to let us use." Chibi-Usa sobbed abandoning her grip on Yugi's shoulders to hug the teenager. Before the conversation could continue a scream of pain echoed in the corridor then complete silence. Chibi-usa lifted her head, eyes red from crying and let go of Yugi as the teenager disappeared. "No!" she cried out reaching out to the shadows, imploring them to bring Yugi back.

Instead she watched Nepha's soul room disappear as she blacked out.

* * *

The first thing that Chibi-Usa felt after being forced back into her body was the pain from all the injuries that had been inflicted on Nepha while she had been in the possession of her body. With a groan of pain she forced her eyes open and blankly stared up at the clear, dark sky above. Tears gathered in her eyes as the feeling of regret and disgust made her chest hurt, emotions she had not gotten off of her chest while confessing to Yugi while Nepha was being dealt with in her mind. That spurned her to sit up, wincing in pain, and looked around hoping to find Yugi.

"Chibi-Usa!" she heard her future mother cried out happily, yet clearly shocked about something.

_The future is definitely going to change._ Chibi-Usa thought to herself, noting that Yugi was no where to be seen and she could not bring herself to glance at the God's dais.

"Venus Crescent Beam Smash!" Venus shouted, sounding rather desperate. Chibi-Usa snapped out of her dark thoughts, head swiveling around to stare at the two scouts and her future parents. They stood six or more feet away from her and all of their punches, kicks, and magical attacks kept on hitting what seemed to be a barrier.

"Don't worry, Chibi-Usa, we'll free you from this place!" Sailor Moon, having dropped her Princess Serenity transformation at some point, assured her in a trembling pulling her scepter from thin air. Chibi-Usa dismissed them and their assurances and took a chance to turn her attention to the three Gods.

"Yugi." she whispered seeing the broken form of Yugi carefully cradled in the arms of Obelisk, who sat on the edge of the dais, while the other two sat in their thrones patiently watching those remaining in their realm. She slowly got to her feet, wrapping her arms around her injured ribs. "Is she…?" she began to ask, leaving off the rest of her question in hopes that it wouldn't have to be said out loud.

_**"Yes, Yugi Motou is just barely clinging to consciousness."**_ Osiris answered. Chibi-Usa let out the breath she didn't even realize she was holding in and hobbled forward, slowly approaching the Giant Soldier God.

"Chibi-Usa, don't!" Tuxedo Mask shouted this time. The pink haired young woman didn't even glance at them, determined to make her way to the dais. "They can't be trusted!"

"Listen to your Father, Chibi-Usa!" Sailor Moon shrieked over the sound of more attacks hitting the invisible barrier.

"I don't know what is truth and what is lies anymore. All I know is that I wish I had the iron will that you do, Yugi." Chibi-Usa stated loudly pausing a foot from Obelisk and Yugi, gasping as her injuries flared with another bout of pain. "You didn't treat me like a pariah, didn't outright hate me for what I have done, and went as far as to risk your own health to give me a second chance that I don't deserve."

"A will… you gained." Yugi wheezed out without opening her eyes. Chibi-Usa tried to blink back fresh tears.

"No I haven't." Chibi-Usa protested only to flinch at the weak, rumble of a laugh from the injured teen.

"You… are talking… to me." Yugi pointed out slowly opened her eyes, turning her head to stare at Chibi-Usa. The teen figured she must have taken more hits than she first thought, since she couldn't take in a full breath, and the pain from her leg being broken turned into what felt like a full body throb. "No preach… ing. No stu… pid speech… es." her breaths were getting shorter, which worried Chibi-Usa greatly.

"Chibi-Usa!" Jupiter or Venus barked out in anger. No one paid them any mind.

"How dare you disturb our peaceful future!" Sailor Moon shouted at the Gods, about to go into her typical speech.

"Shut up!" Chibi-Usa shouted turning to face them, wincing in pain at her sudden movements. Sailor Moon jumped, startled from the outburst, and looked ready to cry. Tuxedo Mask wrapped his arms around the blonde's trembling shoulders and opened his mouth to reprimand his future daughter. "The fighting is done and at what cost to you? Nothing! You stood there and did basically nothing to help take out Nepha."

"Young lady, you can't…" Tuxedo Mask trailed off only for Chibi-Usa to let out a harsh laugh and turned away from them.

_**"Your impudence was vaguely amusing in the beginning but now it is getting annoying, foolish children."**_ Ra snarled getting to his feet, stalking off of the dais and towards the group at the barrier._** "On your knees, now."** _he growled pointing at them and dragging his finger down. The scouts and Tuxedo Mask let out cries of protest when they hit the sand on their knees. Ra turned back to the dais, nodding to Osiris.

_**"Yugi Motou, you have proven yourself to be determined and strong enough to shoulder the responsibility of being the Guardian of the Shadow Realms. Of course you will need to be trained in all aspects of fighting, from physical to magical and mental."** _Osiris informed the half conscious teen, who barely lifted her head and turned to face the leader of the three Gods. _**"You accepted this responsibility and the consequences of your actions when you executed your first 'Mind Crush' to kill the dark spirit of former-Queen Nepha. We will ask one final time, do you understand what you are about to take on?"**_

_**"If you bow out you will die."** _Obelisk told the teen in his arms. Yugi winced and spots began dancing in her vision, a warning that she was running out of time.

"Yes." she gasped eyes growing heavy.

"She killed someone that could have had another chance! She needs to be punished!" Sailor Venus shouted. Ra turned and glared down at her, causing the scout to cower under his sharp eyes.

_**"When you wake in your time you will forever be intertwined with the Shadows and your training will begin. You will live your life as if nothing has changed, but when we require your presence you will answer out summons."**_ Osiris intoned getting to his feet. Yugi turned her head and seen Chibi-Usa was staring down at her, her vision was starting to blur. _**"Sleep, Guardian, we will not let you die."** _Yugi went limp in Obelisk's arms. Chibi-Usa flinched at the subtle movement and dragged her gaze to Osiris.

"What will you do with us?" Chibi-Usa cautiously inquired biting her bottom lip.

_**"They will retain nothing of their past heritage or powers."**_ Osiris answered motioning to the three scouts and Tuxedo Mask still kneeling in the sand glaring at him. _**"Your continued existence as Silver Millennium warriors is a catalyst for all troubles that will threaten this world. Removing you will ensure continued safety."**_

"And your precious Guardian?" Sailor Moon angrily spat out. Chibi-Usa turned around to face her future parents and the two scouts, knowing that whatever will happen next will focus on them.

_**"Our Guardian can be in the public eye if she wishes, but our previous Guardian used his powers to guard his dynasty. Yugi Motou is not a reborn Guardian of our Realm and we hold her to the same demands we made of our previous Guardian, nothing more and nothing less."**_ Ra answered for Osiris.

"You can't!" Jupiter protested struggling to her feet.

_**"It has been done."**_ Osiris informed her sounding a bit smug. He snapped his fingers and the four were gone, presumably back to their present and to their now normal lives.

"And me?" Chibi-Usa whispered turning to the Gods for a final time.

_**"It was by your less then innocent actions that broken this disgusting future and balance restored to the world and time."** _Ra informed her, practically appearing beside her and causing the young woman to jump nearly a foot in the air._** "Had you not stolen the dagger containing the soul of former Queen Nepha, the holders of the Millennium Items would have never felt it was their duty to go to the future to retrieve it."**_

_**"Yes, I agree."** _Osiris concurred, Obelisk staying silent._** "We will offer you a reward for your actions.**_

"But, I…" she trailed off, biting her lip. All of these new thoughts that had been born from her broken dreams, broken ideals, was beginning to be too much to her to handle. It was just too much all at once without a break.

_**"What we have gleaned from the memories you shared with former Queen Nepha upon her release and take over of your body paints a sad picture. Forever cursed to be a child, stunted in both emotional and mental growth, and neglected by your parents who seemed to put everything and everyone else before you and what you needed from them."** _Osiris began, observing Chibi-Usa's shell shocked expression and assuming that meant he was not making the wrong assumptions._** "We will offer you a second chance at life, one where your parents will not be the now former Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask."** _The young lady's eyes widened in hope and she slapped a hand over her now gaping mouth.

"A second chance?" she echoed in awe, voice so low it was practically a whisper and full of many repressed emotions. Osiris nodded and she sank to her knees, head in her hands sobbing. "I would have no Princess duties? Would I grow up? Would I have friends?"

_**"Normal parents, normal child issues, no interference from us or the past."** _Ra gently informed her, touching the top of her head.

"I accept." She sobbed, this time in happiness, and the world around her went dark.

* * *

In the present Rei and Ami felt something shift, they felt lighter. At the same time Zuka and Yami woke up from their unconscious state only to find that Malik and Ryou had returned from the future, with a blonde man they remembered to be Amon only one eye was covered in bandages. Chisis and Strings were talking in a corner, the boy clearly shaken, with Benefrit, who had her back to them. Youko and Yugi were missing.

"Okaasan is making dinner." Malik told them, noting that they were looking around and assumed they would ask about those missing. "Yugi is…" Before he could continue on the house phone rang.

Benefrit reached out and picked up the radio phone from the table beside her. "Satou residents." she cheerfully greeted, but her smile fell moments later. "Kaiba-san, can you repeat that please?" Her face paled and eyes widened. "I will tell her, thank you. I take it you are already at the hospital?" Now all attention was on her. "Of course. Bye." She hung up and got to her feet, trembling.

"What did Kaiba have to say?" Ryou asked, fearing the worst.

"Yugi is in the hospital, she and two others are in critical condition. Injured in some sort of accident. They called him since he was the first name on the emergency contact information she kept in her wallet." Benefrit relayed looking over the shocked, stricken faces of those in the living room. "He is at the hospital now."

No one moved for an entire minute then the living room erupted in pure and utter chaos.

* * *

** END OF "THE BIRTH OF THE PSYCOTIC TRIO"**

* * *

_**EXTRA: **__Where was Shadi in All of This?_

Some things never changed over time. In Shadi's case he retained a stalker from the time in Pharaoh Atemu's court till the present day. He had willingly spent five thousand years sleeping in the tomb where the Millennium Item had been hidden to hide from the stalker, who did not know how to take 'no' for an answer. Now Sailor Pluto had found him again. Unfortunately this time she had literally dropped in on him when he had gone to visit the three Millennium Item holders (technically he viewed them as his children, but he didn't have to tell them that).

Escaping had been easy. Ducking into an alley and into the shadows, unfortunately she had managed to grab him and warped him to where the Gates of Time stood. " Gods be damned." he muttered pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Now you cannot escape me, my love." Pluto purred, which would have sounded sexy to any other man, and sauntered towards him.

"I can, I will, and I still hate you." he dryly reminded her with a flat gaze. She charged at him, staff raised above her head, and Shadi drew a curved sword that met the metal staff between them.

Unknowingly to Shadi, when Pluto kidnapped him was the same time that a time traveling ritual was being prepared in Juuban and when their weapons clashed as when three teenagers from Domino City were flung through space and time into the future.

* * *

**EXTRA:** _Why…?_

"Obelisk I can accept as a forgotten Egyptian God, probably of War but mostly of a Warrior and all that entails." Yugi began, ignoring the fact that the Scouts were glaring daggers at her back and that Amon was now praying out loud. "Why dragon gods for you both?" she asked motioning to Osiris and Ra.

"Of all the things you could ask for, you ask that?" Ryou blurted out in a high pitched voice. Yugi heard the sound of flesh-on-flesh and figured that the white haired teen had also slapped his forehead.

_**"That is simple."**_ Ra stated sitting back.

_**"Yes, Maximillion Pegasus didn't think having us appear in our practically human appearances was intimidating enough for the card game he based on the Shadow games."** _Osiris answered without hesitation.

"So, Obelisk was based off of the Vergil's devil trigger in _Devil May Cry._" Yugi began pointing at the Giant-Soldier God. "Ra became a red eastern dragon or wyrm, maybe even Chinese Dragon from their festivals." she continued moving her finger over to the god with the mantle of a bird of prey. "And, you are the same?"

_**"Unfortunately."** _Ra muttered. Obelisk nodded in agreement.

* * *

**EXTRA:** _The Trio is in the Future— Callisto Rages_

Rei and Ami had left Benefrit's house in Juuban shortly after their three new friends went to the future to prevent a serious catastrophe from happening. Their reasoning was sound, extra set of clothes and things to keep their mind off of what was possibly happening while they waited. At the same time a nervous and trembling Youko had pulled an equally concerned Benefrit into the kitchen to make something to eat or drink (Youko was in favor of spiked tea). Chisis and Strings had also left for a brief amount of time, presumably to torment String's mother. This left Zuka and Yami, who had ransacked all the drawers in the living room till they found a deck of playing cards, were playing a couple hands of poker. It was a better alternative then trying to kill one another while they patiently waited for Ami to return from wherever she lived with her chessboard.

The tense peace of the house, however, did not last.

"How dare you survive!" a high pitched voice shrieked as Zuka drew a blade and threw it in the direction of the spirit that appeared scowling. Yami took in the appearance of the ghost and sighed. He recognizing the tell-tale signs of a Lunar Royal- sleeveless, strapless white gown with her long white hair up in the royal style threaded with pearls and a silver crown of diamonds on her head, meaning a typical Bitchy Ice Queen.

"Your one chance to kill her and she's already dead." Yami mocked with a snort. It was true that the blade had only passed through her torso, without inflicting any injury whatsoever, and sunk into the wall to the hilt beside the television.

"Stay out of this, Pharaoh. This conversation is between me and my useless half brother." Queen Callisto Serenity sneered smoothing invisible creases from her straight skirt with a perfectly manicured hand.

"There is nothing to discuss. You are dead, I am alive again, and everything is almost perfect. So stop trying to haunt us, you frigid bitch." Zuka sneered tossing his cards down, folding out of the hand, and slowly rose to his feet. Yami quickly collected the cards and began to shuffle them. He decided that it would be better to watch the fireworks that were about to take place then to interfere himself. A smirk curled his lips as he toyed with the idea of getting his mother and making popcorn, but didn't think he had enough time to do both.

"How dare you defile my home with your presence!" Benefrit bellowed, running into the living room from the kitchen with a frying pan in hand. "Fear the all mighty power of my blessed kitchenware!" she cried out landing a solid blow to Callisto's face, sending the spirit flying into the wall.

"Blessed kitchenware?" Zuka trailed off, voice sounding a bit high pitched. A grinning Youko emerged from the kitchen next with a cheese grater in one hand and a metal tea kettle in the other.

"I think I am going to pretend this never happened." Yami whispered with a shiver. He never knew how scary his mother and Youko could be.

* * *

**EXTRA:** _After the Trio Goes to the Future— Osiris Talks to Callisto_

The formless power of the Shadow Realms churned and twisted in anger as Shadi the Dark Sage looked through a large, leather bound book of parchment. The Three Gods of the Realm had charged him with searching through 'The Threads of the Fates' for anything that could shed light on why the Silver Millennium Royalty would allow such a blatant disregard for the rules stand. Unfortunately for him, and a couple hundred bottles of aspirin later, he found the root of the trouble and informed the Gods. In turn the Three Gods decided to act on this information, by sending Osiris the Heaven Dragon for obvious reasons.

_**"You idiot!"** _he blurted out in an unusually angry tone, staring down at the proud former Queen Callisto Serenity of the Silver Millennium. He noted she had no remorse for what she had done and, if anything, looked a tad bit smug. _**"What made you think that this fools dream,"** _he continued, referring to the self-proclaimed utopia that would have been Crystal Tokyo, _**"was the true and proper future of happiness and prosperity?"**_

"I heard it directly from Pharaoh Atemu's Oracle when I stayed in his court five-thousand years ago before he decided to marry that thrice damned Silent Mage." She calmly informed him, trying to keep her nose in the air but that was hard to do with a dragon who did not look too impressed.

_**"You interpreted it to fit your own ends, didn't you? Which means that you didn't understand one word of that prophecy, correct?"**_ Osiris asked, barely succeeding in keeping his tone neutral.

"I understood it! The Oracle said that there will be a time of endless peace and prosperity that would come when the true king and queen established their rule!" she shouted defiantly with her hands on her hips. The dragon snorted in disbelief, his head tilting back just a bit .

_**"No, when we passed the prophecy down to the Oracle it was worded differently."**_ He dryly informed her. Callisto's face began to turn red with her anger at him. _**"In short, an era or dynasty of peace and prosperity will begin once the ruler finds a proper balance to temper his harsh nature. No true title was mentioned, no time period, and so on. It was ambiguous enough to give hope, not to be taken so far out of context."**_

"You lie!" she shrieked glaring up at a now laughing Osiris, who rolled his eyes and nearly sent her flying with a swat of his massive tail.

_**"Even if we did mention titles, such as 'king' or 'queen,' we would have been referring to the Pharaoh and his second Queen! Why in the world did you think we would be referring to your air headed daughter and her prima-donna boyfriend?"** _he pointed out, chuckling by the end of his statement at the look of permanent shock was stuck on her face

"But, but… they were perfect! Mean too…" she trailed off. Osiris yawned in response.

_**"Oh good heavens…"** _he muttered and hit her with his tail, feeling better as he crushed her into the ground under his weight, snorting at the death threats she heaped on him among her complaints of pain. "_**I knew that I should have had Ra make the prophecy more specific! 'No, it will be fine' he assured me. 'I doubt that some arrogant moron will hear it and thinks it is about them and spend their life making it a self-fulfilling prophecy!' Bastard."** _He muttered to himself while watching her struggle to get herself free.

* * *

**EXTRA: **_Where was Shadi in All of This?_

Some things never changed over time. In Shadi's case he retained a stalker from the time in Pharaoh Atemu's court till the present day. He had willingly spent five thousand years sleeping in the tomb where the Millennium Item had been hidden to hide from the stalker, who did not know how to take 'no' for an answer. Now Sailor Pluto had found him again. Unfortunately this time she had literally dropped in on him when he had gone to visit the three Millennium Item holders (technically he viewed them as his children, but he didn't have to tell them that).

Escaping had been easy. Ducking into an alley and into the shadows, unfortunately she had managed to grab him and warped him to where the Gates of Time stood. " Gods be damned." he muttered pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Now you cannot escape me, my love." Pluto purred, which would have sounded sexy to any other man, and sauntered towards him.

"I can, I will, and I still hate you." he dryly reminded her with a flat gaze. She charged at him, staff raised above her head, and Shadi drew a curved sword that met the metal staff between them.

Unknowingly to Shadi, when Pluto kidnapped him was the same time that a time traveling ritual was being prepared in Juuban and when their weapons clashed as when three teenagers from Domino City were flung through space and time into the future.


	45. Trio: INTERLUDE: Settling In

_**THE PSYCHOTIC TRIO: PAST VERSUS PRESENT**_

_Almost a month after their trip to the future, everyone is still recovering - especially Yugi, who now has to deal with three Ancient Egyptian Gods meddling in her life and the weight of Shadow Realms on her shoulders. Now the ancient past is haunting the three dark spirits, allowing the Trio a chance to finally spread their wings._

* * *

**INTERLUDE: _Settling In_**

_I'm walking down the line_  
_That divides me somewhere in my mind_  
_On the border line_  
_Of the edge and where I walk alone_

_Read between the lines_  
_What's fucked up when everything's alright_  
_Check my vital signs_  
_To know I'm still alive and I walk alone_

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me_  
_My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating_  
_Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me_  
_'til then I walk alone_

- "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day from album _American Idiot_

* * *

The world had most definitely titled on its axis.

The last thing Motou Yugi remembered had been in a semi-conscious, quickly becoming fully unconscious, and in pain state laying contently in the arms of Obelisk the Tormentor and Giant-God Soldier in the Heart of the Shadow Realms. Now she was fully conscious, feeling perfectly fine, dressed in clean clothes and in her own time. She recognized the Domino City shopping plaza, but she didn't have control over her body. All she could do was watch people pass by her and occasionally the God or Gods pulling her strings would have her pause and peer at the books on display in the shop window in an attempt to make her look some-what normal. Don't fight what we must do to give you time to acclimate to your change in status among the mortals. Osiris whispered in her mind, sounding oddly remorseful.

It was ominous and reminded her what she had sacrificed to save everyone. What she had done to give a child that should have been an adult another chance at life instead of dying while possessed by a twisted, vindictive spirit or turned over to a past that didn't stay buried in myth. Honestly, she didn't regret her decision one bit.

Whatever they had planned for her just made her a bit edgy.

That is good, regret is not a thing our Guardian should feel about their job. Ra hummed appearing in place of her reflection in the window for a few moments. Your decision was wise and surprising, considering the nature of humans. he continued fading away, her reflection returning. She took in a deep breath and suddenly she could move of her own free will again.

"What would that make me then?" she whispered out loud shoving her hands into her pants pockets, staring down at the display of books.

In time, you will no longer be human. You will be like us, yet not entirely like us. Not really of the Shadow Realm but not really of your world either. You can now listen to the shadows without issue, wield a power beyond that you were not meant to inherit but to act as a balance for the now former Guardian Pharaoh Atemu. Osiris answered with a hum, sounding curious about the turn of events.

That was comforting, even the Gods didn't really know what was doing.

Someone bumped into her, letting out a cry of surprise. Yugi reached out and caught the handles of the delicate cardboard box, with a logo of a popular bakery in the shopping plaza on side, before it fell any further surprising the man. She blinked and finally turned her attention to him. He wore heavy Chinese silks and style clothing with shoulder length dark hair and a fair complexion that reminded her vague of the traditional vampire depiction. "Are you alright?" she awkwardly asked holding the box out for him.

"Yes, I was just distracted by an old memory." he admitted with a smile taking the box back. "You look a bit troubled." he hummed bringing a hand, with slightly long purple nails, and touched her cheek. Yugi didn't flinch back at the fact a stranger was touching her. Her exhausted mind was still reeling from all the changes that had taken place over such a short period of time.

"Just confused, nothing new." she shrugged but he didn't pull his hand away from her.

Before anything else could be said, everything went to Hell in a hand basket in a rush of noise.

People were screaming and running before gun shots echoed in the plaza. After that the shouting of the insane man waving a gun could be heard, but his words didn't really register in Yugi's mind, all she could hear was her own heartbeat. A laughing young boy ran from the bookstore she and the Chinese dressed man were standing in front of, the man whipped around and brought the gun up. Yugi shoved the man back towards the store and took a few steps so that she was between the man and the boy when a searing pain exploded in her right side and she immediately started to drop. With a twist she shoved the boy towards the Chinese dressed man and intending to finish her fall so that she could catch herself with her hands, but that plan was put to an abrupt end when a second pain ripped through her left shoulder. She twisted again and landed on her back at the same moment that she cracked that back of her head off of the tile.

The crack of bone on the tile sounded obscenely loud in her own ears, even as the world exploded for a third time this time with the addition of dark stars appearing before her eyes.

Before she was mildly annoyed and a bit worried, now she was just in pain and pissed off. Why was everyone attempting to kill her? First it was fighting in the future against a disturbing future created by disturbing monarchs from a kingdom that wouldn't die, then it was fighting Nepha to the death for a second or third time in the Heart of the Shadow Realms for three ancient Gods, and now she had been shot twice by an insane man and was on her way to dying of blood loss and a concussion.

Pulling together the last bit of energy, last bit of resolve, she sat up and stared at the insane man with unfocused eyes. She wanted him to suffer for this, wanted him to feel the suffering he caused this day. The shadows purred in her mind, fueling her anger and fully agreeing with her final decision. She brought her trembling right hand up and grit her teeth. **"Mind Crush."** she whispered moments before the man let out a scream of pain dropping his gun, which clattering nosily against the tiles.

The voices around her sounded to be too far in the distance and she felt her back hit the tiles again. The Chinese dressed man was leaning over her, looking worried and saying something she couldn't hear. The world blacked out against her will.

* * *

She opened her eyes and found herself laying on warm stones staring at a clear blue sky, but she couldn't move her body. Taking deep breaths she tried to will her body to move, but it wouldn't. A flash of dark purple drew her attention, she looked around "Calm yourself, Yugi." Mahaad calmly told her running his fingers through her hair. A flash of gold caught her attention and her eyes darted from his face to the movement, noting that it was Mana's hair and she was nervously kneeling by her right hip.

"Master Mahaad, should I go and tell Master Maram that Guardian Yugi is awake?" she asked biting her lip, briefly glancing down at her.

"Yes, please." he agreed with a nod. Mana then leaned down and pressed a brief kiss to Yugi's forehead.

"We will take good care of you, Guardian Yugi." she whispered in promise and left in a flash of magic that felt like the flutter of feathers against her skin. Mahaad shook his head, amused at his apprentices antics.

"Mahaad…?" Yugi rasped out forcing a trembling hand up to touch his face. The purple magician carefully clasped her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

"I apologize for the pain you will be going through, Yugi, but it must be done to ensure your safety and our own." he assured her, his other hand still petting her hair. She gasped when Mana and Maram returned, the combined magic almost painful for her to feel.

"She's already sensitive to our movements?" Maram asked moving to sit on her other side, across from his purple counterpart. "All records of Pharaoh Atemu's transition detailed that it took him nearly a week before he reached this phase!" He cupped her cheeks, gently tilting her head up so that they were looking one another in the eye.

"Guardian Yugi has been exposed to the Shadow Realms longer and in a way that is far different than Pharaoh Atemu." Mana nervously spoke up, sitting at Yugi's feet with one hand on the teenager's ankle. "We have been aware of her since she touched the puzzle as a child and that increased when she became the balancing light and sanity to the Pharaoh's darkness and madness when he was active again. His father never let him use Shadow Magic till he appealed to the Gods for that blessing on Pharaoh Atemu's twelfth year."

Yugi had to bite her lip to stifle the cry of pain when other magic users appeared around her, their magic lashing at her without meaning to. Maram lowered her head back to the stone she was laying on and pressed a kiss to the corner of her eye before he pulled away, getting to his feet and disappearing out of her line of sight. Then the pain started to fade away and she felt her vision getting blurry. "We must start, she is fading again." the red magician urgently told everyone. Fighting for every moment of consciousness she tried to focus on the fact that she could still clearly hear the whisper of fabric over the stone and hear the mummers of the magic users settling around her.

"Dark Elf is missing." one of the others announced.

"You're surprised?"

"Hold…" she whispered out staring at Mahaad from the corner of her eye, frowning when he placed the hand he had been holding over her own heart.

"Stay strong, Guardian Yugi." he firmly ordered her getting to his feet.

Seconds felt like years and minutes like decades before magic slammed into her and she blacked out, no doubt screaming in those final moments.

* * *

When Yugi fought to wake up the second time around she felt extreme pain, that she was laying on something stiff, and an encroaching numbness. The second thing was the fact that she could hear muffled voices and felt latex covered hands on her bare skin seconds before the pinch of a needle in her arm.

Then she was out again.

* * *

She woke up abruptly on the warm stones again, gasping for breath with eyes squeezed shut. Several hands were holding her limbs down, a couple pairs of hands firmly pushing down on her chest till her back was against the stone again. All she could feel was pain and it was so intense she couldn't even scream, all she could do was gasp for breath and cry.

One thought did go through her mind despite the pain, and that was the fact that nothing made sense any more!

A pair of cool, long fingered hands suddenly clamped down on her head, palms against her temples and finger tips digging into her cheeks. "Calm yourself, Guardian." a female voice intoned and Yugi felt the pain recede. She let out a few slow, deep breaths but her heart was still racing a mile a minute. Slowly she opened her eyes and stared into the concerned, slightly blue face of the Mystical Elf. "Good, you will be well after this."

"…wha…?" she rasped out, body still trembling despite the lack of pain. Those holding her down slowly withdrew but she could still see them hovering over her in worry.

"The Gods asked us to aide you through the hardest part of the transition. Them nor us really anticipated how violent it would be for you or else we could have prepared better." she explained nodding to the others, who drifted away, but still hung around in the immediate area. "Mahaad and Maram took the brunt of it, being close to you, and the Dark Sage is currently watching over them with Black Chaos and Mana. Poor Black Chaos looked torn between sitting here beside you and hovering like a mother hen over his two counterparts."

Yugi cracked a smile at that thought.

"Nex…?" she mumbled with a slight frown.

"You will recover from this, during that time all the changes will settle. Afterwards we will start to train you with your abilities and when your body is fully healed your physical training will begin." she explained with a motherly smile, stroking Yugi's hair. "We are all sorry about how they had to cover this up, the great pain you have been caused in your world."

Yugi couldn't bring herself to tell the Elf that she didn't know how she felt about being set up for such pain and suffering. At the moment she was indifferent, more focused on her physical pain and confusion then on thinking about the situation. All those freak-outs could wait till everything made a bit more sense…

…if that was at all possible, considering she now guarded a realm that defied all sense.

* * *

Two hours.

That was how much time passed between the shooting at the shopping plaza and the phone call from the police, nervously informing Kaiba Seto that Motou Yugi was going into surgery at Tokyo General Hospital. It took an additional half hour for a angry and worried Kaiba to arrive in the emergency ward with his tentative boyfriend, Katsuya Jounouchi, right behind him. After threatening the doctor for information on his 'adopted' sister he called her mother in Juuban and informed them of the bad news.

Two hours was also the amount of time Yugi spent in surgery, having two bullets removed and internal damage fixed. During that time Jounouchi had taken to browsing the gift shop to try and get his mind off of the worst case scenarios that kept going through his head, trying to find a decent gift for her. That resulted him stepping outside to call his sister on his cell phone, explaining what happened. It was in that time span that Youko arrived with Malik and Ryou in tow, the three dark spirits staying back in Juuban to help Benefrit, Amy, and Rei test to see just what happened with the other Sailor Scouts.

Shortly after those two hours passed Kaiba was feeling a bit awkward holding a trembling Youko, who looked ready to breakdown completely. Malik and Ryou were too jittery, shaken by the story that Kaiba told them about the police call. There was something going on that he didn't know about, something that explained their shock and confusion followed by worry and nervousness. He settled for waiting for Yugi to wake up before asking her for the entire story of what was going on behind his back. The doctors let them into her room, figuring all of them at once was not too bad since Yugi was still heavily sedated.

The first thing Kaiba, Malik, and Ryou noted was that the shadows of the room were darker and occasionally eyes of all colors could be seen in their peripheral vision. They said nothing about this to the others, watching Youko kneel beside the hospital bed and slide her hand into Yugi's unresponsive one, careful of the monitoring device around her index finger and the IV in her arm. She then burst into tears. Malik and Ryou crouched down beside her and hugged the woman, attempting to lend their support to her. Jounouchi bit his lip, not sure what he could do to help the older woman out… Then Kaiba turned and hugged him, whispering a 'thank you' in his ear and suddenly he realized he was already helping out by standing beside his boyfriend and his adopted family.

* * *

Yugi, still too weak to really protest or fight anything, let the female magic users use her as a doll. They had whisked her away from the ritual area, with the aide of a nervous Black Chaos, and into their area of the Shadow Realms, which she didn't see much of due to the transport spell. The room they had arrived in was rather homey, with magical texts tucked into bookcases with trinkets and scrolls and nice carpets covering a hard wood floor, but what surprised her was the surprisingly modern furniture arranged in the center of the room.

Black Chaos carefully sat her down in a rather cushy chair. "If you need anything, Guardian Yugi, just call for me." he told her with a sweeping bow before disappearing. Then the women entered the room with blankets and began to bundle her up, cooing or muttering darkly about rushed, spiritually taxing rituals.

"It has been so long since we could create a new title! More so for a female title." Mana wistfully sighed sitting on the arm of the chair Yugi was cocooned in. "We thought Queen Heba would accept when it was offered to her, but it was highly disappointing when she expressed no desire to be associated with the Shadow Realm. She tried to discourage the Pharaoh from using his powers, tried to turn him away from the Gods." she recalled with a frown.

Yugi blinked, her mind having gone completely blank with that revelation. Heba, the perfect Heba that Nepha had so wished to kill and Isis's past self so wished to possess, had disliked the Shadow Realm? Had disliked the Gods? Maybe that is the real reason why Zuka hates her, Yugi thought to herself watching the other magic users go through books and loose parchment sheets in the corner of the room with the bookcases. For a thief he holds strong to his ways, it would have been a slap to the face if your own Queen began to reject those ways.

She frowned and dismissed those thoughts for right now. Assumptions were dangerous to make, it would be better if she outright asked him next chance she got. It was time she asked them just who Heba was to them, just who Yami had been in love with before his imprisonment.

"Sounds odd for one that gained the title of Silent Mage, equal or near equal to the Pharaoh's own title and ability. The Gods were none too happy with her attempts and…" Mana trailed off biting her lip. Yugi turned to her, tilting her head to the side in question.

"Now Mana, this history lesson can wait till later. Now we will be both getting to know our dear Guardian and creating her image as Guardian of the Shadow Realms, Chosen of the Gods." the Witch of the Black Forest chuckled making her way over to them moments before the group migrated their way.

Yugi let them continue chattering over her, relaxing to the point that she began to drift off asleep.

* * *

She woke up to a stiff body and a low, steady beeping. With a hiss of pain she slowly opened her eyes and stared up to a white ceiling with the lights dimmed. Looking around as best as she could she realized she was in a hospital room, the heavy curtains were drawn and it looked to be daylight outside from the bright outline around the curtains. She took a deep breath and tried to bring herself to figure out a means of buzzing a nurse, but found no real motivation to do so. Instead she just closed her eyes and relaxed. "Son, you must be quiet. The kind nurse told us that Motou-san has not woke up yet." a man told his son just outside of the hospital room.

"I will, Tousan." the boy promised and they entered the room. She took a few deep breaths and waited, curious about who was visiting her. A chair, sounding rather close and to her right, faintly scrapped against the linoleum flooring and a slight weight was by her hand. "She's pretty, Tousan." the boy whispered and she felt a small hand on her cheek.

"She was also brave enough to face that mad man down and keep you safe." the man told his son.

"When will she wake? I want to give this to her." he boy pouted. Yugi decided to humor the child and slowly opened her eyes again, meeting a pair of shocked brown eyes that belonged to a child then the surprised dark eyes of his father. Not trusting her voice she brought her left hand up and weakly waved. The child then grinned and pulled out a folded, hand made card, babbling about why he drew what he did before opening it and explaining everything. His father moved to the bedside table and added a few simple flowers to the large arrangement of dahlias in a glass vase.

Yugi just smiled, oddly touched by the handmade 'Get Well Soon' card, but didn't have time to think too much about the explanation before the child carefully hugged her. "Thank you, Motou-san." the boy mumbled into her neck before pulling away. "I'm sorry you got hurt."

"No regrets." she barely got out, her throat feeling extremely dry. The father noticed her wince and poured a glass of water for her, which she accepted with a nod, taking small sips. "Go have fun with your friends, be happy you are not in this bed." she added watching his grateful father pick him up.

"We will visit Motou-san after she recovers, son." the man assured the boy nodding to her and leaving the room. Yugi sighed and closed her eyes again, the child's father had barely kept himself together. She could see it in his eyes that he wanted to say more, but wouldn't in front of his son.

It made her chest feel a bit tight, a bit odd.

"Motou-san?" a soft voice asked and she opened her eyes again, turning towards the door and staring at the surprised nurse. "Yamamotou-san said you were awake before he left."

"Ah." she rasped out with a weak smile. The nurse looked amused when she moved across the room and started to fuss over her, chattering about what was going on and about the news story that she had been mentioned in the day before. After hearing about everything she had missed in a short day and half to two days Yugi wanted to cry. The shear thought of being in the media spotlight for her actions was horrifying, it was absolutely the last thing she ever wanted to experience!

Duelist Kingdom had been hell enough, Battle City was a nightmare wrapped in daily mental torture, but this? It was the ninth ring of Hell combined with her worst nightmares and fears, with a dash of torment and a pinch of trouble!

* * *

Youko felt more exhausted then when she had left. A simple stop at the hospital cafeteria, to attempt to force herself to eat a bit of breakfast, had turned into a couple hour long nap slumped over a table between a tray of half eaten food and a cup of now cold coffee. She had instantly regretted telling her boys- Ryou, Malik, Kaiba, and even Jou- that they needed to attend school and that she'd be fine at the hospital alone. Every time she thought about her daughter, who she had barely started to get to know in the short time they had been reunited, she felt her mind ready to tear itself apart at the seams.

Her steps faltered in the deserted corridor that would turn right into the long hallway that had Yugi's room and she leaned against the wall. It took everything she had to keep herself from breaking down into tears. _"This wouldn't have happened if he defied what that psycho wanted!"_ she thought bitterly, ignoring the fact that if Sugoroku hadn't given her daughter the Millennium Puzzle they would have never met. Yugi would have never known her brother, Malik would have never known the fun of being out in the world, Rashid would still be a broken young man enslaved to the warped view of Isis's Father._ "For all I know, he set everything up since before the puzzle!"_ she mentally screamed, squeezing her eyes shut, pressing the heels of her hands against her temples.

Youko flinched when a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders. "Calm yourself, Motou-san. You don't want to worry Yugi when she wakes up, do you?" the smooth, familiar baritone of Amon whispered in her ear. The ancient blonde man, who had returned with Ryou and Malik from their odd escapade to the future, had only left Malik's side when he attended school. With the chaos she hadn't really gotten to know him or help him settle into her small home, it made her heart twist a bit because he was new to their world…

"This is Sugoroku's fault!" she sobbing turning and hugging him tightly, burying her face into his black t-shirt. "I'm not sure where it began, but I know he was part of it. He put my children in danger, he denied one a childhood and the other he was basically selling off." she sobbed digging her nails into his back. Amon didn't flinch or shy away from the emotional woman, he vaguely remembered Atemu doing the same after Heba had died, but he had been partial to trying to kill a person before breaking down.

Awkwardly he rubbed her back and cooed in ancient Egyptian, letting her temporarily rid herself of her emotional baggage.

"Am I interrupting something?" Zuka drawled out poking his head around the corner. Amon glared at the Thief King, who held a hand up in a show of peace. "The nurses are excited, Yugi's awake and apparently woke up when the kid she saved and his father stopped by to drop off a gift." Youko was out of Amon's arms and out of sight in the blink of an eye.

"How much did you hear?" Amon asked frowning at the Thief King.

"Everything, just means I'll have to talk to Kaiba about keeping tabs on the wayward Motou man." Zuka sighed rubbing his eyes. He had been twitchy ever since Yugi had been admitted to the hospital, he kept trying to convince himself that it was Ryou's fault for being worried with a fair dose of anxiety. "Youko is going to break and Yugi is going to drift away from us."

"Yugi will drift from all but you and I, Zuka." Amon reminded the Thief King. "You seen the shadows in her room, felt their oppressive presence. Did you feel like you should be lurking in the corners of her room, that being this far away from her in her weakest hour is a betrayal?"

"Why is that, Guard? What did Yugi do in the future that brought this about?" Zuka hissed out glaring at the blonde, shifting so that he stood toe-to-toe with the scarred blonde.

"Yugi summoned the three Gods as a last resort against an enemy calling himself Wiseman. Shortly after that was challenged by Wiseman's champion, Nepha who suppressed the consciousness of another, and the Gods declared Yugi their champion. Yugi's fate was sealed when she asked permission to use an attack that draws on the Shadow Realm all to save an innocent, misguided child that was never allowed to grow up and enjoy life." he whispered, uneasy about discussing such matters in such a public forum.

"Gods, that means…" Zuka trailed off, stumbling back with eyes wide, brining a hand up to cover his mouth. "The Pharaoh… he didn't feel the shift in power?"

"I don't know, he still lacks most of his memories so there is a good chance he does not fully remember how much power he used to have." Amon admitted pressing a hand over his eyes, careful of the gauze over his injured eye. "Either way, she will need us more now then when first met."

That was a chilling thought, but not because they would have to watch Yugi a bit closer. It was because neither knew the training that the Pharaoh put his son through before the tradition of publicly handing down the mantle of Guardian of the Shadow Realms. On top of all that, how much training would they need to help with or change due to these changed times?

* * *

Twenty minutes had passed since Youko burst into Yugi's hospital room and practically fell asleep clutching her now conscious daughter's hand. Yugi, having been propped up by the nurse that quickly left the room when her frantic mother entered, watched the two dark spirits slink in and move around the room to stand on the other side of her bed. The solemn expression on both of their faces told her that Amon had explained what had happened despite the fact that no one should remember.

Those you trust will remember. Osiris whispered in her mind. We did not want to leave you alone in our darkness with your new responsibilities.

Zuka leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her forehead and whispered something in Ancient Egyptian, something she normally wouldn't understand but her mind translated. He was whispering a prayer and a promise. The white haired man drew back and Zuka did the same, only his was a promise and an oath. "Could you please ensure Okaasan gets home and some rest?" she asked with a forced smile.

"Are you sure?" Amon asked eyeing the sleeping woman.

"Okaasan needs rest, she won't get that here slumped over my bed." she answered, looking oddly sad. He glanced at a pensive Zuka.

"I will take Okaasan home, but I expect answers." Zuka agreed with a huff moving around the bed. He maneuvered the older woman so that he could pick her up and leave the room, leaving them alone.

"You're different." Amon finally stated sitting on the edge of her bed, unsure of how he should address the teenager. He had met her once or twice while possessing her brother, then in the future ordeals but not enough to feel comfortable in addressing her alone. Unfortunately this was something that he had to do. "They orchestrated this, didn't they?"

"Maybe, maybe not. I am not entirely sure." Yugi answered looking him in the eye, bringing up her free hand to touch the gauze that covered his injured eye. "For awhile I wasn't sure if I was awake or alive, if I was in control or if they were control. I just know that I was back in this time and uninjured, till hell broke loose." She bit her bottom lip resting her thumb on the gauze, applying no pressure. "You shouldn't have…"

"I am a warrior and I willingly accepted that battle." he gruffly told her, curling his callused fingers around her thin wrist. "It will scar, I may retain my sight in that eye, but either way it was my choice and it is an injury I will carry with honor." Yugi didn't look away. "Will you carry the burden you took on the same way I carry my scars?"

"I would not have agreed if I wouldn't." she finally replied after a moment or two of thought letting him pull her hand from his face, but not releasing her wrist.

"You accepted being a sacrifice to save a child that could have died and let you continue to be a normal person, untouched by the power of the shadows ruled by the Gods. You could have appointed Atemu your champion." he hissed out glaring at her with his one eye. Surprisingly Yugi didn't flinch or even look startled by the change in his demeanor. "Why?" he demanded moving so that they were practically nose-to-nose.

"Could you kill a innocent child?" she whispered closing her eyes, remembering the shocked look on Dark Lady… no Chibi-Usa's face before she blacked out. "Could you live the rest of your days out trying to convince yourself that you made the right decision?"

At that moment Amon had an idea of the character of the new Guardian of the Shadow Realms, an idea of just whom he and Zuka would be deferring too till they decided to pass on to the next life. She was different from the ancient court and maybe that was why the Gods made their declaration and then gave a rare blessing of power to one not meant to wield it. "You have my loyalty, Guardian." he whispered in response, letting go of her hand and moving off of the bed, where he knelt with head bowed.

"Amon, you don't have to kneel." she laughed running her fingers through his wild hair. He raised his head at the same moment Yami entered the room, looking rather angry. The blonde man got to his feet, eyeing the former Pharaoh for a few moments then back to a resigned Yugi.

"I will step out and let you both discuss matters in private." Amon declared moving around the bed, chest feeling tight since he had an idea what would happen during this discussion. He remembered Atemu's character rather well, knew that he would not be happy with Yugi's decision. "If you need something, Yugi, just call for me."

He closed the door behind him, the knot in his chest feeling a bit tighter, and hoped that Zuka had the foresight to keep everyone away for the remainder of the day.

* * *

Yami's angry accusations still rung in her ears, even after crying herself to sleep in Amon's arms and waking up alone in the Shadow Realms laying on a comfortable bed in a Spartan decorated room staring out of the doorway, framed by wispy gray curtains, that led on to a balcony with a railing. She attempted to wipe away the tears trailing down her cheeks, but her hands were trembling too much. She squeezed her eyes shut and rolled on to her side, trying to even out her breath so she didn't start sobbing again.

Maybe she was an idiot, to trust him. It was definitely foolish to hope he wouldn't eventually compare her to his deceased wife Heba straight to her face. It hurt more hearing him tell her that she would never hold a candle to Heba then it was to imagine it.

"Go ahead, Guardian, don't bottle up this spiteful emotion." a calm, serene voice whispered in her ear. Yugi finally did sob and curled up a bit tighter, ignoring the feel of someone sliding into bed behind her and slipping their arms around her.

"I… I… I ga-gave hi-hi-him som-somethi-thing I… I… guar-arded and he bro-oke i-it." she stammered out, her entire body trembling. The person behind her was cooing in Ancient Egyptian, or another ancient language, but Yugi didn't care nor register that.

Eventually Yugi calmed down and carefully rolled on to her side to face the person comforting her. The first thing she noticed was the sharp, sad shadowed eyes of a woman with purple hair. Yugi brought a shaking hand up and traced the delicate facial features of the Dark Elf, who she vaguely remembered missed the painful ritual from earlier. A card, a Shadow Realm citizen, that Yami had an unexplainable hate for and that Ishizu had emulated. A spell caster that she assumed avoided everyone for a reason no one spoke about.

"My chest hurts." Yugi muttered pulling her hand away and tucked it between them.

"It will for a time, but eventually the pain will fade." the Dark Elf assured her with a sad smile. "Just never give up on what can be, don't let this heartbreak make you fear trying again."

"Is this your room?" Yugi whispered, wanting to drop the subject for now.

"This is your room, Guardian." the Dark Elf told her pressing a kiss to Yugi's forehead. "The Gods decreed that I am to aide you as Mahaad once aided former Guardian Pharaoh Atemu."

Neither said anything after that declaration. Yugi had many questions on the tip of her tongue, foremost being why Yami hated the Dark Elf, but she couldn't bring herself to ask any of them. "Please don't leave me." Yugi whispered closing her eyes and relaxing in the woman's arms.

"I will be here for you always, my Guardian." the Dark Elf whispered in her ear before she started to hum a comforting lullaby.

* * *

**A/N:** I tried to make this a relatively long chapter, unfortunately there was not much going on since I needed a a prologue to the next part. For those have waited, I apologize it took so long. I have been fighting against writer's block since I took a leap of faith with my life. I will try to update sooner then a year, but it all depend son how much my job and its crazy hours builds my writers block.

Also, give me a heads up if this chapter is too choppy. The only reason why it is that way is to show Yugi's transition.


End file.
